A Collier County judge sentenced a North Naples baby sitter to 10 years in prison Tuesday morning, after the woman’s 5-month-old charge suffered irreparable brain damage at her hands.
Cherie Landowski, 27, pleaded no contest to aggravated child abuse after admitting to investigators in 2010 that she struck the baby on the head with a bottle when he was fussy.
“Your selfish and evil actions took so much away from Quentin and our family,†the child’s mother, Christina Maulsby, told Landowski during a victim’s impact statement at Tuesday’s sentencing.
“Since March 25, 2010, Quentin’s life, our life, our family’s life, has never been the same. You took so much from him... You will spend 10 years of your life away from what you know, away from your family, and your daughter. Quentin will spend a lifetime.
“You gave Quentin a life sentence.â€
[...]
In court, the mother described how on the morning of the abuse, Landowski — who came highly recommended through other parents at the Maulsby’s church — had taken Christina into the nursery at her home and showed her a sign she had put up: “Children are a gift from God.â€
Quentin Maulsby is now 3 1/2 years old, a bright-eyed boy with a crooked smile who beems when his mother calls out “All aboard! Choo choo!â€
He scampers around a public playground in Bonita Springs with his 2-year-old brother, alternately chomping on Twizzlers and popping in his pacifier.
His motor skills are fine, his mother observes. Nothing else is, though.
Quentin can’t speak. Just last month, he was rushed to the hospital after trying to gouge his eyes out. He’s had seizures, and tried to bang his head against walls and floors. The boy has permanent damage to two lobes in his brain, as well as his brainstem.
The family moved back to their home state of Iowa months after the abuse. Landowski was released from jail a day after her arrest in March 2010 on a $25,000 bond, and Christina Maulsby didn’t want to run into her.
The Maulsby family isn’t sure how Quentin will develop. Doctors have told them although he started speaking, a seizure or stroke wiped out the possibility he will do so again.
He communicates best through visuals since the part of his brain that would normally allow for imitation — crucial to sign language — is damaged.
Instead, Christina, Grant and a team of therapists and in-home workers taught him to use pictures to tell them what he needs. He’ll pull an image of milk or juice off the fridge and hand it to one of them, for example.
It’s the best solution they’ve found in a series of trial-and-error attempts to work with his special need. As he gets older, the challenges change, and often are getting worse. He has three therapy sessions a day in an ongoing struggle to make any progress.
But last summer, he began having anxiety attacks that were later diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Christina insists her son remembers what happened to him, that he is still grappling with the psychological damage of abuse by his caretaker.
Landowski chose not to speak in court Tuesday. She faced 30 years in prison for the crime, but pleaded no contest to the single charge. She will be required to serve a minimum of 6 1/2 years of her sentence, followed by 20 years of probation.
“I don’t think this sentence is strong enough, personally,†the boy’s father, Grant Maulsby, told Collier Circuit Judge James Shenko on Tuesday, as Landowski sat a desk’s length away beside her attorney.
“We’ll have to see what Quentin deals with the rest of his life,†he told the court. “At least he’s getting some sort of justice.â€
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