British Nanny Found Guilty Jury Settles On 2nd-Degree Murder, Stunning Both Sides Of The Atlantic

After more than three days of deliberations, a jury Thursday night found Louise Woodward, a 19-year-old British nanny, guilty of second-degree murder in the death of the 8-month-old baby she was hired to watch.

Woodward collapsed in tears in the arms of one of her lawyers, Andrew Good, as the verdict was announced, shortly before 7 p.m. PST.

“I didn’t do anything,” Woodward cried. “I didn’t hurt Mattie.”

Matthew Eappen, the son of a pair of doctors from suburban Newton, Mass., died in February of brain injuries. Prosecutors had said that Woodward, furious at Matthew’s parents for trying to restrict her social life and also upset over Matthew’s crying, had caused the injuries by shaking the baby roughly and throwing him against a flat surface.

Her action had fractured his skull and caused a blood clot, prosecutors had argued.

The verdict was a stunning failure for the defense, which had gambled that Woodward would be acquitted and asked that the lesser charge of manslaughter not be allowed as a compromise verdict.

The jury had three choices: first-degree murder, second-degree murder or acquittal.

Defense lawyers had argued that the brain injuries had occurred several weeks before Feb. 4, when Woodward noticed that Matthew was unresponsive, tried unsuccessfully to revive him and called 911.

A barrage of medical experts supported their claim. Second-degree murder means that Woodward killed Matthew Eappen intentionally and with malice but not with extreme atrocity, cruelty or premeditation.

The nanny, who took the stand on her own behalf, was unflappable as she denied doing anything to harm the child. Experts called by her lawyers testified that there were no external signs of trauma, and said the baby had a previously undetected head injury that could have been reopened by minor jarring.

The verdict shocked the residents of Elton, England, Woodward’s hometown. Members of the community who had gathered at The Rigger pub to watch the verdict on satellite TV sobbed and hugged each other, struggling to understand how the girl they knew as a youngster could go to jail for the death of an American baby entrusted to her care.

“I am devastated,” Debbie Lalor, 36, who once used Woodward as a baby sitter, told reporters.

To the 2,000 inhabitants of this town 200 miles northwest of London, Woodward is a quiet local girl who struggled with her high school final exams and then went to America for a year’s break before entering college.

“People are just stunned at this moment. They just can’t take in this sentence,” the Rev. Ken Davey, an Anglican priest told MSNBC immediately after the verdict was read.

Sentencing in the case is scheduled for today before Judge Hiller Zobel of Middlesex County Superior Court. The conviction carries a sentence of life in prison with a chance of parole in 15 years.

The trial became a debate about Matthew Eappen’s mother, Deborah Eappen, an ophthalmologist, and fed the public backlash against working mothers.

In an interview with Bryant Gumbel on CBS Wednesday night, Deborah Eappen said: “People want to blame someone. What If I was a stay-at-home mom, and went out to the movies and this happened? It shouldn’t matter what we were doing.”