Babysitter severely injured toddler, CO officials say. ‘Lifetime of consequence’
A toddler sustained severe injuries, including a “traumatic brain injury,” while in the care of his babysitter, and the boy now faces a “lifetime of consequence,” Colorado prosecutors said.
Now, Mckinley Slone Hernandez, 26, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison, the Colorado First Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a June 3 news release.
Police began investigating a possible child abuse case after a babysitter, Hernandez, and her boyfriend brought a 2-year-old boy to a Lakewood hospital on Sept. 1, 2023, prosecutors said.
“Once I saw him and all the 50 doctors standing around him, I had to leave the room because it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” the boy’s mother, Stefanie Reichert, told KDVR after Hernandez’s arrest in November 2023.
The child eventually needed to be airlifted to a children’s hospital “for life-saving surgery,” prosecutors said.
The child had a number of “severe injuries, including a traumatic brain injury with brain tissue damage, subdural hemorrhaging, reduced oxygen and blood flow to the brain, and retinal hemorrhaging leading to tissue displacement behind the eyes,” prosecutors said.
The “significant bruising across his body” was consistent with signs of child abuse, prosecutors said.
At the time, prosecutors said Hernandez ran an “unlicensed, home-based daycare” and had been watching the child on a regular basis for the past year.
Investigators learned Hernandez was caring for the boy at her Lakewood home between Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, 2023, prosecutors said.
Surveillance footage “showed the child falling or being pushed from a camper trailer at 7:30 p.m.” on Sept. 1, according to prosecutors.
Right after, Hernandez picked him up, then carried him and bit his arm as she brought him inside the home, surveillance footage showed, prosecutors said.
The child fell unconscious and became unresponsive at some time over the next 14 minutes, prosecutors said.
Even though the child’s state required “emergency care,” Hernandez did not head for a hospital until 7:56 p.m., about 30 minutes after his fall, prosecutors said.
During Hernandez’s trial, prosecutors argued the child’s injuries “could not be solely attributed to the fall from the trailer.”
A jury found Hernandez guilty of one count of child abuse – recklessly causing serious bodily injury after a seven-day trial, a conviction that comes with a “prison sentence ranging from 10 to 32 years,” prosecutors said.
At Hernandez’s sentencing, the family of the now-4-year-old boy spoke, prosecutors said.
His mother told the court of the 32 days he spent in the hospital “intubated, sedated, placed on and off a ventilator, and fed through a tube,” prosecutors said.
Reichert said her son “had to relearn basic functions such as breathing, eating, and walking, and continues to face challenges with gross motor skills,” prosecutors said.
Even today, the boy continues his recovery journey as the family adjusts “to a new reality,” Reichert reportedly said.
“The possibility of playing sports, wrestling with his brothers, following in his father’s footsteps into the military — these are things that will never happen,” Reichert said, according to prosecutors. “Not because he didn’t want them, but because someone made a choice to take them away.”
The boy’s father echoed the sentiment, telling the court “his son’s once promising future is now ‘full of uncertainty, medical appointments, and constant vigilance,’” prosecutors said.
Hernandez was given an 18-year prison sentence, “followed by a mandatory three years of parole,” prosecutors said.
Lakewood is about a 9-mile drive southwest from Denver.
This story was originally published June 4, 2025 at 10:08 AM with the headline "Babysitter severely injured toddler, CO officials say. ‘Lifetime of consequence’."
