Madyson Moyer testified Thursday she was feeding a four-month-old boy on a cushioned rocking chair in Dyer on June 23, 2020 when his breathing got “weird” and his left arm fell to the side.
She called the boy’s mother.
“I’ve never seen something like that before,” she said, “and I didn’t know what was going on.”
Doctors concluded he had brain bleeding and eye hemorrhages — signs of shaken baby syndrome.
Moyer, 30, of Munster, is charged with battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person less than 14 years old and neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, both Level 3 felonies. Each charge carries 3-16 years. She has pleaded not guilty.
The jury continued its deliberations Friday.
Deputy Prosecutors Jessica Arnold and Maureen Koonce accused Moyer of injuring the child. Her defense lawyer Adam Tavitas argued she didn’t do it, called the mother right away and that the injuries cannot be timestamped to when the boy was in her care.
On the stand with a calm demeanor, Moyer denied she hurt him.
She recalled getting connected online with the boy’s mother Janel Robilotta three years earlier and quickly became a trusted babysitter for their eventual four kids as the family increased her hours. Over time, they referred her to a handful of family and neighbors.
That day, she was in the bathroom briefly when she “heard a cry.” The boy had been acting normal, but “fussy” that day. She was feeding him when something changed.
“I just hadn’t heard him breathe like that,” she said. “I didn’t realize the severity of the situation.”
The boy’s parents, Robilotta and Edward McCracken, Sr., out for dinner, said they’d be right home.
With Robilotta on the line, she held the phone to the baby’s chest. Robilotta hung up and headed back. In the meantime, Moyer said she removed the boy’s sleep sack and tried to apply a cold washcloth. The boy “wasn’t looking” and his eyes looked like they were “rolling back.”
When Robilotta hung up from dinner, Moyer said later it “clicked” that it was more serious than she realized.
Robilotta found them at the top of the stairs, “swooped” up the boy and told McCracken to call 911. Moyer continued to watch the three oldest girls until 9 p.m. when the grandparents arrived.
“He was fine and then he wasn’t,” she said, briefly crying.
McCracken texted her telling her to “focus on the girls” and she did “great.” He added “thank you for saving him,” Moyer said.
The Indiana Department of Child Services later interviewed her.
Moyer told jurors she studied speech pathology in college and earned a master’s in autism studies. She most recently has worked with autistic children as a registered behavioral technician. She knew what shaken baby syndrome was.
Did you have a bad day or snap, Tavitas asked.
“No,” she responded.
On cross-examination, Koonce asked if Moyer didn’t leave out details from her testimony.
She noted Moyer testified that Robilotta told her the child hadn’t had a morning nap, because McCracken Sr. had been yelling before she arrived. Koonce said Moyer hadn’t told that detail to DCS, but shared it Thursday on the stand.
Koonce also asked if Moyer wasn’t “stressed” that day from an exam the prior day and weighed down by caring for four children at once. No, Moyer said.
Earlier on Thursday, Robilotta, a nurse, testified her son was a “textbook baby” — no previous health problems.
Moyer texted her a picture at 5:39 p.m. of her son in dinosaur pajamas — “lounging” after his bath. Then, a call to come home.
“It looked like he was having a seizure,” she said.
Later, Franciscan Health Dyer doctors told her going out the door — as her son was being transferred to Advocate Christ Medical Center — telling her they suspected child abuse.
It was “awful,” in the latter hospital, where she once worked, “waking up every day not knowing if your kid is going to be ok.”
It took five days in the hospital with doctors, who told her they believed the boy was intentionally hurt. But you didn’t see it, Koonce asked.
“Correct,” Robilotta responded.
McCracken testified Tuesday the boy, now 5, was left with a permanent shunt in his head and legally blind in one eye.
