A 36-year-old step-grandmother who was accused of killing an 11-month-old child acquired a stunning jail sentence after pleading responsible. The plea deal was made within the New York Supreme Court docket in Queens, simply days earlier than Shanica Callaghan’s trial.
Callaghan allegedly beat and shook her husband’s grandson Jeramiah to dying in 2017. The newborn sustained a fractured cranium and accidents to his neck, spinal twine and mind.
Jeramiah additionally had substantial retinal and optic nerve sheath hemorrhages in each eyes, and a cut up retina in his left eye. He was on left help till his dying, per NBC New York.
A health worker acknowledged the infant was killed by abusive head trauma, together with “violent, repetitive forces of acceleration and deceleration and vital blunt drive trauma being utilized to the complainant’s head and physique.”
Callaghan and her husband, Clinton, the infant’s maternal grandfather, had sole custody of the kid by an order of placement issued by Texas State Division of Household and Protecting Providers in 2016.
She was arrested a 12 months later and charged a number of felonies together with second-degree homicide, second-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a kid.
Nevertheless, in response to the Day by day Mail, all of these fees had been dismissed in October 2024. As a substitute Callaghan was charged with second-degree reckless endangerment.
The outlet additionally reported that her plea settlement recommends 364 days in jail—which is simply at some point shy of a full 12 months—proper earlier than her sentencing by Choose Ushir Pandit-Durant subsequent month.
Not solely is that this the utmost sentence Callaghan can obtain below this cost, nevertheless it additionally stops her from being deported again to her native Jamaica.
It’s attainable that Choose Pandit-Durant might reject the plea deal and provides Callaghan a special sentence, however can’t change the fees or exceed the 364-day most.