A former babysitter admitted to manslaughter Wednesday for the 2019 death of a man she had been accused of disabling 40 years prior as an infant. She received a three-year prison sentence and acknowledged striking him multiple times, The Associated Press reports. Terry McKirchy, 62, accepted a plea deal for the death of Benjamin Dowling, who died at 35 after a life of severe disabilities caused by a brain hemorrhage he suffered in 1984 when he was 5 months old while at McKirchy’s home. Benjamin never walked, talked or ate on his own and spent his life in a wheelchair. In a letter of apology, McKirchy said she was feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by taking care of numerous children and struck him, causing his injuries.
Before the plea deal, McKirchy had been charged with first-degree murder and faced a possible life sentence. A Broward County grand jury indicted McKirchy, who now lives in Sugar Land, Texas, with first-degree murder in 2021 after an autopsy concluded Dowling died from his decades-old injuries. She had voluntarily entered the Broward County Jail in May to begin her sentence after the deal was nearly finalized. Prosecutor Pascale Achille said the case took three years because McKirchy’s attorneys had to do their own investigation and then a plea had to be negotiated. Rae Dowling, Benjamin's mother, told investigators that when she picked him up from McKirchy on July 3, 1984, his body was limp and his fists were clenched. McKirchy was charged for his injury, but lightly sentenced in 1985.
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