VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Virginia Beach woman has been sentenced to serve nearly three decades in prison in connection to the death of a baby in her care.
A judge sentenced 42-year-old Shyan J. Csatlos to 50 years with 22 years suspended, making her sentence 28 years. The sentencing comes nearly six months after a jury found Csatlos guilty of second-degree murder and child abuse/neglect charges.
In September of 2019, Csatlos was running daycare out of her house when a 3-month-old she was caring for became unresponsive, prosecutors said.
While first responders were able to resuscitate the baby, the victim remained unresponsive until they died at CHKD, prosecutors said.
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The baby suffered from a brain bleed, broken fingers, a black eye and retinal hemorrhages, prosecutors said. CHKD physicians involved in the child's treatment, child abuse pediatricians, the medical examiner and a neuropathologist all testified that the baby suffered an abusive head trauma.
Attorneys say Csatlos gave various accounts of what happened but could never explain why the baby became unconscious. They also say that she gave different accounts on how long the 3-month-old had been left alone, where the victim was when she noticed they were unresponsive, and whether the baby had been recently fed or had a fresh diaper.
Prior to the incident, the baby was happy and healthy, prosecutors said. There were two other incidents where the 3-month-old was happy and healthy before attending the daycare at Csatlos, then became fussy, vomited and went to the hospital.
Csatlos's sentence exceeds the Virginia State Sentencing Guidelines recommendation of no greater than 22 years and 8 months.
