COLUMBUS: A central Ohio jury has acquitted a baby sitter in the sudden death of a 5-month-old child last year.
Prosecutors in Columbus had accused Jennifer Campbell of causing the death of Colleen Dobbins by shaking the child. But a jury found Campbell not guilty of charges that included felonious assault, voluntary manslaughter and child endangering.
The coroner ruled the child’s March 2011 death was caused by traumatic brain injury, but expert witnesses gave conflicting testimony over what could have caused it. The 30-year-old Campbell testified that the baby cried, then stopped breathing and went limp in her arms as she tried to comfort her.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that the child’s mother, Erin Dobbins, wept and slumped into her husband’s arms when the verdict was read Wednesday.
