A former babysitter was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the 2019 death of a man she said she injured as a toddler 40 years ago.
Terry McCarthy, 62, accepted a plea deal in the death of Benjamin Dowling, who was 5 months old when he suffered a brain hemorrhage in McCarthy’s suburban Fort Lauderdale home in 1984. Dowling was left severely disabled and died at age 35. Investigators believe McCarthy shook Dowling, injuring him.
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In a letter of apology read to Dowling’s parents by her lawyer, Assistant Public Defender David Frye, McIlch said she struck and injured Dowling because she was overwhelmed and exhausted from caring for so many children.
Terry McCarthy is shown in an undated arrest warrant photo released by the Fort Bend County Jail. (Fort Bend County Jail via The Associated Press)
A Broward County grand jury indicted McCarthy, who now lives in Sugar Land, Texas, on first-degree murder charges three years ago after an autopsy showed Dowling died from injuries sustained decades ago. Her family said Dowling had never been able to crawl, walk, talk or feed herself.
She was released on $100,000 bail shortly after being charged and then voluntarily booked into Broward County Jail on May 29.
McCarty, who had faced life in prison, received a plea deal that resulted in him receiving three years in prison and 10 years of probation.
This is not the first time McCarthy has made a deal in connection with Dowling’s injury; in 1985 she received an exceptionally light sentence after pleading not guilty to attempted murder charges. Then, six months pregnant with her third child, she was sentenced to 12 to 17 years in prison and sentenced to weekend jail until the birth. She was then released and placed on probation for three years.
At the time, she maintained her innocence and told reporters that her “conscience is clear.” She said at the time that she accepted the deal because she wanted to put the incident behind her and be with her children.
Prosecutors called the sentence “therapeutic” but did not explain it at the time. McIlchy’s public defender at the time, Lyall Gaudiosi, said the sentence was “appropriate given the circumstances.” McIlchy died in 2009.
Ray and Jo Dowling had been married for four years when Benjamin was born on January 13, 1984. Because both Dowlings were working, they hired McIlch, who was 22 at the time, to babysit Benjamin in their home.
Ray Dowling told investigators that when she picked up Benjamin from McIlchy on July 3, 1984, he was limp and had his fists clenched. She rushed him to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with a cerebral hemorrhage caused by violent shaking. McIlchy was arrested within days.
The Dowlings told reporters in 1985 that they were shocked when prosecutors told them minutes before a court hearing about the plea deal McCarthy would receive.
In a 2021 statement, the Dowlings said Benjamin had endured several surgeries in his life, including having metal rods placed in his spine. Benjamin was fed through a feeding tube and attended rehabilitation and special education schools. The Dowlings had two more children, and took Benjamin to games and performances. The family moved to Florida’s Gulf Coast in the late 1990s. Benjamin died at home on September 16, 2019.
“Benjamin will never know how loved he is, and he will never be able to express that love to others,” they said. “Although he smiled when he was with our family, he was unable to express it in words. We believe he knew who we were and that we were working hard to help him.”
Shaken Baby Syndrome first gained national attention in the 1970s, when it was described as a cause of sudden death in infants and young children with no outward signs of abuse. It is diagnosed when a child has brain swelling, bleeding on the brain’s surface, and bleeding behind the retina.
However, research over the past 25 years has shown that these conditions can also be caused by genetic problems, illness, and accidents. The University of Michigan’s National Exoneration Record has records of 29 cases in which shaken-baby convictions have been overturned since 2000.
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According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which now uses the term “abusive head trauma,” about 1 in 3,000 babies under 1 year old are shaken or otherwise abused each year, and about a quarter of those injuries are fatal.
The report said doctors should look out for bruising to the torso, ears or neck in children under 4 years old, and bruising in infants under 4 months old, as signs of shaking.
