Downers Grove man who shook his infant daughter so hard that it caused her to have permanent brain damage was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison.
In a negotiated plea with DuPage County prosecutors, Timothy Churchill, 22, admitted guilt to one count of aggravated battery to a child in exchange for authorities dropping additional felony counts against him.
Prosecutors said Churchill admitted to shaking his 3-month-old daughter on at least five occasions around January 2016 because the infant would not stop crying. At the time, the child lived with her mother in Naperville, authorities said.
He and the mother brought their child to Edward Hospital in Naperville, where doctors diagnosed brain injuries and transferred the child to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Despite treatment, the girl lost sight in one eye from retinal hemorrhages caused by the shaking, Assistant State’s Attorney Cathy DeLaMar told Judge John Kinsella. The child has suffered irreversible brain damage as a result of the shaking, she said.
Churchill originally told Naperville police that he had dropped the child, but later admitted shaking her when she wouldn’t stop crying, the prosecutor said.
Under the sentence, Churchill must serve 85 percent of his sentence and then will be required to register on a state list of persons convicted of violence against children.