A 36-year-old step-grandmother who was accused of killing an 11-month-old baby received a shocking jail sentence after pleading guilty. The plea deal was made in the New York Supreme Court in Queens, just days before Shanica Callaghan’s trial.
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Callaghan allegedly beat and shook her husband’s grandson Jeramiah to death in 2017. The baby sustained a fractured skull and injuries to his neck, spinal cord and brain.
Jeramiah also had substantial retinal and optic nerve sheath hemorrhages in both eyes, and a split retina in his left eye. He was on left support until his death, per NBC New York.
A medical examiner stated the baby was killed by abusive head trauma, including “violent, repetitive forces of acceleration and deceleration and significant blunt force trauma being applied to the complainant’s head and body.”
Callaghan and her husband, Clinton, the baby’s maternal grandfather, had sole custody of the child by an order of placement issued by Texas State Department of Family and Protective Services in 2016.
She was arrested a year later and charged multiple felonies including second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
However, according to the Daily Mail, all of those charges were dismissed in October 2024. Instead Callaghan was charged with second-degree reckless endangerment.
The outlet also reported that her plea agreement recommends 364 days in prison—which is just one day shy of a full year—right before her sentencing by Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant next month.
Not only is this the maximum sentence Callaghan can receive under this charge, but it also stops her from being deported back to her native Jamaica.
It is possible that Judge Pandit-Durant could reject the plea deal and give Callaghan a different sentence, but cannot change the charges or exceed the 364-day maximum.
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