Monday, March 16, 2009 10:22 PM CDT
Sullivan man pleads not guilty to murder charges related to his infant daughter's death
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
SULLIVAN — A man admitted shaking his infant daughter, who later died from head injuries, though he also claimed she might have been hurt because he almost dropped her.
That was the account a police officer said Monday that Michael J. Dilley gave when interviewed about the death last month of his 11-week-old daughter Olivia. A judge ordered Dilley to stand trial in connection with the girl’s death, and Dilley pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
Dilley, 26, of Sullivan was alone with Olivia on Feb. 24 when he called his wife April out of another room in the home because Olivia was “limp and wasn’t breathing,” according to the account of interviews with the couple that Casey Faro, a special agent with Illinois State Police, gave in court Monday.
Doctors who later examined Olivia at St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur and St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria both found hemorrhaging and other injuries that indicated shaken baby syndrome, Faro also said.
Dilley was interviewed twice about what happened with Olivia, Faro continued. During the first interview, he said he shook the baby three to six times and demonstrated how he did it by making a bouncing motion, she explained.
In the second interview, Dilley said he was at a computer and holding Olivia with one arm when she started to fall and “her head came back real fast,” Faro added. She also said she took that to mean that the fall was “in addition” to Dilley shaking the infant and said Dilley told her, “It’s my fault because I was a little frustrated.”
Doctors at St. Francis found “profuse swelling” of Olivia’s brain and “massive hemorrhaging, the result of severe shaking” that had occurred recently, Faro testified. The baby was declared brain dead and an autopsy that was performed later showed she was shaken and the injuries couldn’t have been inflicted accidentally, she said.
After Faro’s testimony, Moultrie County State’s Attorney Marvin Hanson argued that Dilley was “the only person in control” of Olivia at the time and “the next thing you know,” she wasn’t breathing. Defense attorney Chris Eberspacher acknowledged that Faro’s testimony implicated Dilley, but said he was concerned that April Dilley’s mother and others who cared for the baby the same day weren’t questioned.
Circuit Judge Dan Flannell ruled that Faro’s testimony was sufficient to order Dilley to stand trial on the charges. The judge set a tentative trial date of May 4 and and scheduled a pretrial hearing for April 15.
Dilley remains jailed with bond set at a level where he’d have to post $50,000 to be released.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.
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just watching wrote on Mar 16, 2009 11:23 AM: