The babysitter admitted to brutally striking the child before the girl loses consciousness and died a few days later.
In 2018, Lindsay Partin, 37, was convicted following an eight-day trial of murder, involuntary manslaughter and four counts of child endangering.
Hannah Wesche, the girl Lindsay babysat, collapsed at her home in Cincinnati, Ohio, Shank Road residence.
The jury pondered for about 12 hours before finding Lindsay guilty on all charges. She was then sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 18 years.
Jason Wesch, Hannah’s father, took his 3-year-old daughter to her babysitter’s house at 6 am, just as he used to do.
A couple of minutes later, Lindsay called 911, and Jason said Hannah had passed out and she didn’t know why.
According to reports, the 911 call lasted 13 minutes. Lindsey told the operator that Hannah passed out “all of a sudden”. After that, she pointed out that she had fallen pretty badly the day before but that she was fine already.
The call also showed that the babysitter seemed to be worried about Hannah as she was telling how much she loved her and that she was going to be okay.
Hannah’s father and the babysitter could be heard on the 911 tape, pleading with the child to breathe as they waited for paramedics to arrive.
“Hey, look at Daddy,” Jason can be heard saying in the call. “Hannah. Look up. Hannah, hey, Hannah. Breathe. Breathe. There you go. Keep breathing. Breathe for daddy, breathe. Hannah, look at daddy. What’s the matter?”
When first responders arrived, Hannah was unresponsive, had trouble breathing, and had several bruises on her body, head, and face.
“I thought she was dying,” Jason said. “When I picked her up, she was gasping for breath. And every time I’d yell her name, she’d take a deep breath.”
Hannah was rushed to a hospital, then flown to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Jason later compared Hannah’s injury to a shaken baby syndrome, a brain injury caused by violently shaking a child.
The three-year-old was immediately put on life support and, after running some tests, doctors pronounced her brain dead.
Jason revealed that they don’t expect her to live much longer.
The devastated father says he considered a seizure, then a brain aneurysm. However, he later learned from authorities that the babysitter whom he trusted her child to had allegedly “punched” his daughter and “violently shook her” until she lost consciousness.
Lindsay held her version that claimed Hannah had fallen the day before and hit her head on the concrete floor of her garage. After interviewing her again, she confessed to striking the toddler.
“I got mad and I just slapped her up the side of the head. I shook her and I remember picking her up and squeezing her,” Lindsay admitted.
According to reports, Lindsay had a miscarriage several weeks before Hannah’s murder and was having problems in her marriage. She is said to have sent texts complaining that she no longer wanted to care for Hannah.
The babysitter is also said to have grown upset with Hannah’s father after he fell behind on the $30-a-day payments he made for her to look after the three-year-old.
According to a criminal complaint, Lindsay was initially charged with felonious assault and child endangering, accused of causing “serious physical harm to a child by shaking her”.
However, Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said that in light of the toddler’s death, the charge will be upgraded to felony murder, which does not require an intent to kill, only the knowledge that the accused person’s conduct could result in another person’s death.
The forensic pathologist who performed Hannah’s autopsy said the child suffered deep bruising to the back of her head, some of which was revealed only after the skin was peeled away from the skull. She also had a hemorrhage to the optic nerve and “tremendous brain damage.”
The prosecution’s witness said Hannah’s death was a homicide and the toddler would not have been normal within “a couple moments” of receiving the injury.
Hannah’s family said in a statement on Facebook that “despite every effort from doctors” to save her, the child was pronounced dead at 12:15 AM March 18.
“She was a big part of our family,” Jason said in a statement. “She meant everything to everybody. This is just an extremely difficult time. We just hope to God she is in heaven with him and asks for continued prayers.”
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