Day-Care Operator Found Guilty of Killing Toddler

SAN DIEGO — A day-care operator accused in the shaking death of a 13-month-old boy last year at her home was found guilty Monday of fatal assault on a child after a monthlong trial.

Manjit Basuta, 44, put her face in her hands and cried after the jury’s verdict was read in a courtroom packed with family and friends of Basuta and young Oliver Smith.

“Justice was served today,” Oliver’s mother, Audrey Amaral, said outside the courtroom. She added that the verdict should prompt stricter regulations for day-care centers, including additional training for operators.

Basuta, a native of India who has British citizenship, faces 25 years to life in prison when she is sentenced July 13. Her attorney, Eugene Iredale, said he will appeal.

“She is innocent and we believe the evidence showed she was innocent,” Iredale said.

Basuta, who had been free on bail during the trial, was taken into custody after the verdict was announced.

The prosecution’s strongest witness was Cristina Carrillo, Basuta’s Guatemalan housekeeper who was living in the United States illegally and was the only other adult home when Oliver was shaken, prosecutor Daniel Goldstein said.

Carrillo testified that Basuta shook and slammed the toddler’s head on the floor in anger because he wouldn’t stop watching television when it was time for his diaper change.

Carrillo said she initially lied about what she saw because Basuta threatened to have her deported. She said Basuta told her to tell police that the boy fell on a brick patio while playing with other children.

The toddler was hospitalized March 16, 1998, and died a day later.

An autopsy revealed that he had a blood clot beneath his skull and massive swelling of the brain because of bleeding.

Iredale argued that the toddler died of a previous head injury, possibly at the hands of his mother, and that Basuta never shook the child until after he had collapsed and was unconscious.