Round Lake Beach man pleads not guilty in battery of infant

A Round Lake Beach man charged with severely injuring his infant daughter by pressing on her chest pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Lake County circuit court.

Jaime Guadarrama, 28, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of aggravated battery to a child, aggravated domestic violence and aggravated battery.

Assistant State's Attorney George Pappas said Guadarrama, of the 1400 block of Poplar Avenue, took his 3-month-old daughter to the Condell Acute Care Center in Round Lake Beach on May 8.

The infant was unresponsive when she arrived at the center, Pappas said, and Guadarrama told officials she had fallen out of her bed.

The girl was taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, then was flown to Children's Memorial Hospital in Milwaukee.

Doctors there discovered the girl had several broken ribs, a broken right leg, a healing fracture of the right wrist and heavy bruising of the chest and back.

Police were called when the doctors said the injuries could not have been suffered as a result of the fall Guadarrama described.

Pappas said Guadarrama admitted that the girl had been crying earlier in the week and that he had pressed down hard on her chest several times out of frustration.

He is being held on $200,000 bond, and Circuit Judge John Phillips ordered him to stand trial July 20.