Prosecutors filed Friday to dismiss the case against Madyson Moyer after a jury acquitted the babysitter of a battery charge, while they were deadlocked on neglect. The case was filed after a four-month-old boy in her care showed signs of shaken baby syndrome.
In court filings, Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Koonce wrote they couldn’t try Moyer again due to double jeopardy.
They were “prohibited from re-litigating” issues on the battery charge, since she had already been acquitted. She asked to cancel Moyer’s April 24 hearing. Judge Gina Jones granted the request Tuesday.
Moyer, then 30, of Munster went on trial last month.
Deputy Prosecutors Jessica Arnold and Koonce said doctors estimated the 4-month-old boy’s injuries happened not long before he showed symptoms. They argued Moyer was the only adult there and the parents were largely out of the house since that morning.
Defense lawyer Adam Tavitas argued she didn’t hurt the boy; she called the mother, Janel Robilotta, right away. He told jurors a brain imaging expert from Advocate Christ Medical Center said the child could have had issues within 24 hours of a scan and up to 3-4 days, or a week.
Dyer Police responded June 23, 2020, to a call from the 1100 block of Dalemont Way for a child “possibly in full arrest.” The boy’s father, Edward McCracken Sr., called 911. The boy was “conscious,” but “very lethargic.” Moyer told DCS the boy was “fussy, but fine” that morning.
She went to finish feeding him a bottle around 6:45 p.m. When she picked him up, she noticed he was breathing differently, calling the parents at dinner to listen to him.
Doctors concluded he had brain bleeding and eye hemorrhages — signs of shaken baby syndrome.
Staff at Advocate said the boy had no prior injuries. The siblings were too small to cause that kind of damage, social worker Rebecca Chacon told police during the investigation. The boy had signs of “abusive head trauma,” “cerebral compression,” and eye hemorrhages. He needed medication for seizures.
McCracken testified at trial that the boy, now 5, was left with a permanent shunt in his head and legally blind in one eye.
Moyer was charged with battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person less than 14 years old and neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, both Level 3 felonies. Each charge carried a 3- to 16-year penalty.
mcolias@post-trib.com
