By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – McLean County prosecutors on Thursday filed additional charges against a woman from Normal, who is accused of murdering her eight year old stepdaughter by kicking her in the abdomen.
Some of the crimes were apparently caught on video, suggesting the child suffered physical and emotional abuse several times last year.
In court, the state’s attorney’s office announced it filed eight counts of domestic battery and two counts of child endangerment, all misdemeanors, against Cynthia Baker, 41, also known as Cynthia Clay.
Normal Police arrested Baker Wednesday after a grand jury indicted her on five felony counts, including murder, aggravated battery of a child and aggravated domestic battery.
Prosecutor Erika Reynolds told a judge that Baker’s cell phone captured the abuse on video. It allegedly showed Baker slapping the girl last May, wrapping her hands around the child’s neck last August, kneeing her in the back and hitting the girl’s head against the wall last September.
The child endangerment charges allege Baker sent the girl to school without a winter coat last October and refused to follow Doctor’s orders to take her for X-rays.
The girl died at a Peoria hospital January 26 from injuries related to blunt force trauma.
A judge ordered Baker to be held on a $100,035 cash bond. Her attorney, Brendan Bukalski, said Baker has no criminal record. Bukalski said he will ask for a bond reduction, and he’s also confident in his client’s innocence.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
