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It has been six years since a Murray baby sitter was charged with felony child abuse, accused of severely injuring three children who were in her care.
Dozens of court dates have come and gone for Kami K. Tollefson, who was charged in 2010 with three counts of second-degree felony child abuse. Nine trial dates have been set and then canceled.
And on Tuesday, the case nearly came to an end as attorneys presented a favorable plea deal to 44-year-old Tollefson: They would recommend she serve no time in jail if she pleaded guilty to one child abuse count, and entered Alford pleas to attempted child abuse and a second child abuse charge. (An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgment that there is enough evidence to convict.)
But the mothers of the three children who were badly injured years ago pleaded with the judge to not accept the deal, saying they were not told about the no-jail recommendation and the possibility of Alford pleas.
The deal was too lenient, they told 3rd District Judge Randall Skanchy as they detailed the injuries their children suffered and their long road to recovery.
"It wasn't attempted child abuse," cried one mother, Shandee Miller. "It was child abuse."
In the end, Skanchy refused to accept the plea deal, telling prosecutors to meet with the victims and try to come to a resolution where they feel like justice has been served.
It is the first time that victim attorney Spencer Banks has personally seen a judge refuse to accept a plea deal, he said after the hearing.
"I think [the judge] actually listened to us," said Megan Campbell, whose 18-month-old son suffered strangulation injuries in 2009. "I felt completely hopeless. But I refuse to give up hope."
Kelley Crandall, whose son was 16 months old in 2008 when he was hospitalized and nearly died after suffering blunt force injuries to his pancreas, said they had only agreed to a plea deal if Tollefson admitted to them in detail what abuse occurred. The three children were too young at the time to communicate what happened to them.
Now, the three families say they would rather take the risk of going to trial — and the possibility that Tollefson could be acquitted — but they say they believe there is too much evidence for her to be found not guilty on all three counts.
Charges were not brought against Tollefson until 2010, when Miller's 13-month-old baby girl was hospitalized for shaken baby syndrome.
Authorities later determined that the babysitter was the only common link between the three children, and that they all appeared to have been injured while at the woman's home, charging documents state.
Tollefson was booked into the Salt Lake County jail in 2010, but has been free on bail ever since. No new court dates were set Tuesday.