A former babysitter is scheduled to accept a plea deal Wednesday afternoon in connection with the 2019 death of a man she was accused of disabling as an infant by severe shaking 40 years ago.
Terry McKirchy, 62, faced a first-degree murder charge for the death of Benjamin Dowling, who died at 35 after a life with severe disabilities caused by a brain hemorrhage he suffered in 1984 when he was 5 months old while at McKirchy’s suburban Fort Lauderdale home.
Investigators believed she caused the hemorrhage by shaking him.
McKirchy, who now lives in Sugar Land, Texas, was indicted three years ago by a Broward County grand jury after a 2019 autopsy concluded Dowling died from his decades-old injuries.
He never crawled, walked, talked or fed himself, his family has said.
But McKirchy, who faced a possible life sentence, has always insisted she never hurt Dowling.
Court records do not indicate what charge McKirchy will plead to or whether it will be a guilty or no contest plea.
Prosecutors and the public defender’s office will not discuss the case before the hearing.
McKirchy voluntarily entered the Broward County Jail on May 29 after having been free on $100,000 bail since shortly after her indictment.
