Fort Lauderdale, Florida.- A former babysitter pleaded guilty Wednesday to manslaughter charges in the 2019 death of a man she was accused of disabling as a child 40 years ago.
Terry McKirchy, 62, accepted a plea deal in the death of Benjamin Dowling, who died at age 35 after a lifetime of disabilities caused by a brain hemorrhage he suffered in 1984 when he was 5 months old inside McKirchy’s suburban Fort Lauderdale home. Investigators believe she caused the injury by shaking the baby too hard.
In an apology letter read to Dowling’s parents by her attorney, public defender David Fry, McKirchy said she was overwhelmed and exhausted from caring for multiple children and hit him, causing his injuries.
McKirchy, who now lives in Sugar Land, Texas, was indicted on a first-degree murder charge by a Broward County grand jury three years ago after an autopsy concluded Dowling died from injuries she suffered decades ago. The baby was never able to crawl, walk, talk or feed herself, her family said.
McKirchy, who faced the possibility of life in prison, turned herself in at the Broward County Jail on May 29 after being released on $100,000 bail shortly after her indictment.
This is not the first time McKirchy has accepted a plea deal related to Dowling’s injuries. She received a particularly lenient sentence after pleading no contest to attempted murder charges in 1985. Pregnant with her third child and facing 12 to 17 years in prison, she was sentenced to spend weekends in jail until she gave birth. She was later released and sentenced to three years’ probation.
Even then, he insisted on his innocence, telling reporters at the time that his “conscience was clear.” He said at the time that he agreed to the deal because he wanted to put the case behind him and be with his children.
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