Day care owner sentenced to 3 ˆ½ years in baby injury case

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - A central Illinois woman who admitted to seriously injuring a 5-month old boy at her home-day care business has been sentenced to 3 ˆ½ years in prison.

The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that 59-year-old Debbie May of Champaign was sentenced on Friday. In April she entered what is called an Alford plea to aggravated battery, a plea that allows criminal defendants to maintain their innocence while acknowledge that there was enough evidence to persuade a jury to find her guilty.

May was caring for Rowen Kaeding in November 2014 when, according to authorities, her violent shaking or striking of the baby left him with a host of physical problems, including cerebral palsy, infantile spasms and an inability to speak more than a few words at a time.