Mid-Missouri daycare owner faces second trial for injuring child

A Mid-Missouri daycare owner found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child is back in court Monday, after a judge approved a second trial last year.

Parents of Lane Schaefer believe Richter shook the 7-month old back in 2010 at the home daycare in Taos, outside Jefferson City, leaving him with brain damage and blindness. Richter claims she tripped while holding the baby.

In March 2013, a jury ruled Richter not guilty of child abuse, but they convicted her for endangering the welfare of a child after not calling 911 immediately after the incident.

Richter’s lawyers appealed the conviction, and a judge granted her a new trial a few months later.

In court Monday, jurors heard Cole Co. Prosecutor Mark Richardson question baby Lane’s mother, Jessica Schaefer, about what happened before, during, and after the incident on August 19.

The jury selection was made before lunch on Monday.

Both the prosecution and defense made their opening statements.

Schaefer said before the incident at Richter’s home, her son never had any serious injuries.

She noted he had bumped his head on the side of a faucet while giving him a bath, a respiratory virus after he started at the daycare, and he was once colic.

Schaefer said on the day of the incident, a neighbor called her to say her son was unresponsive and that she had called 911 after Richter called her.

Richter told them she had been holding Lane, tripped over another baby in her care, and dropped Lane.

Later in the case, jurors will hear from doctors who Richardson reported Lane had multiple seizures, the “worst bilateral hemorrhaging they’ve seen in 20 years,” and that they believed these problems were caused from the baby being shaken.

The trial is expected to continue for the next couple of days.