Melissa Calusinski claims that she is serving time for a crime she did not do over the death of a 16-month-old baby in 2009 while the child was under her watch at a day care. She was convicted in 2009, and a judge recently denied the request for a new trial regarding the case.
The incident took place on Jan. 14, 2009. Melissa's sister, Crystal Calusinski, said that she remembers what happened like it was yesterday. Crystal was at the front desk of the day care center called Miness Subee in Lincolnshire, Illinois and her sister Melissa started screaming over the intercom. She went over to see what happened and saw the 16-month-old baby, Ben Kingan, in a bouncy chair with foam coming out of his nose.
Crystal picked Kingan up during that time and went to the door to call for help. She placed him on the changing table to perform life-saving measures such as CPR. When paramedics came, Kingan was transported immediately to a hospital but died at around 4:50 p.m. Two days after the death of Kingan, Melissa, who was then 22, was accused of his murder. She was sentenced in 2011 to 31 years behind bars.
After seven years since Melissa was arrested, her attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said that there is new evidence that proves her client did nothing wrong. She noted that there is no proof that the death of the boy was murder and that she believes Melissa is really innocent.
A day after the death of Kingan, a forensic pathologist named Dr. Eupil Choi performed the autopsy on the toddler and said he had a skull fracture. As per the death certificate, it was listed that the cause of death was cranio-cerebral injuries and blunt trauma of the head. Officials said that the child was forcefully thrown to the floor by an adult child care worker. After hours of questioning, Melissa confessed that she threw the boy to the ground due to anger.
As per a recent prison interview with People, it clarifies that what Melissa said when she was being interrogated came out because she was terrified. This comes after the father of Melissa, Paul, claims that someone called him and tipped that the child's death was not due to skull fracture. He noted that the new X-rays showed that his daughter was convicted due to erroneous evidence.
The coroner, Dr. Thomas Rudd, has since looked into the X-rays and said that the boy died of a chronic case of cerebral swelling of the brain due to repetitive concussions, which might have been inflicted by Kingan on himself.
Zellner then argues that Melissa deserves a new trial. ABC 7 reported that the judge handling the case, Judge Daniel Shanes, denied the request for the new trial on grounds that there is lack of evidence. It was also stated that even if Kingan did have previous injuries inflicted by himself, that does not mean that Melissa did not contribute to the new injuries.
The defense is appealing the decision of the judge.
The Kingans won a $2 million civil settlement with the owner of the day care center. Just recently, the mother of Kingan said that her son had so much life ahead of him and Melissa took it away. They have not yet commented on the new interview of Melissa.
