A southern Illinois man reportedly faces up to 60 years in prison if he is convicted of murder in the death of his daughter, who prosecutors say lived roughly a decade after being shaken so severely by her father that she lost most of her brain function.
Torrance "Tyrone" Rogers, 31, of Edwardsville, reportedly already spent roughly seven years in prison on a felony attempted aggravated battery charge related to the injuries he inflicted on infant Taylor Rogers in 1999 after she wouldn't stop crying. Left nearly blind in that attack and requiring around-the-clock care, the girl eventually died of bronchial pneumonia in 2009 at the age of 9.
Rogers, who reportedly pleaded guilty to the lesser count in 2001 and was paroled from a 15-year sentence in 2007, went on trial Tuesday in Madison County on a first-degree murder charge related to the girl's death.
A prosecutor reportedly said that based on previous Illinois court rulings, it isn't a violation of Rogers' constitutional right against double jeopardy to try him for murder after he's been convicted of a lesser crime.
Circuit Judge Richard Tognarelli, who reportedly heard the case after Rogers waived his right to a jury trial, is deliberating the verdict.
Susan Jensen, a prosecutor, reportedly told the judge that Rogers admitted in the earlier case that he shook Taylor. Jensen also cited medical records, autopsy findings and determinations by the St. Louis medical examiner's office in saying Taylor's death was a homicide.
"The reason Taylor died was the injury she received at the hands of (Rogers)," Jensen said. "(Doctors) were surprised that she lived as long as she did."
Rogers' attorney, Lyndon Evanko, countered that an otherwise healthy child could have died of bronchial pneumonia as Taylor did, noting that a Cook County medical examiner who reviewed the girl's records at the defense's request questioned whether the child suffered shaken-baby syndrome.
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