COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus woman who spent nearly two decades in prison on charges of killing a baby in her care was released from prison on Thursday after being exonerated by new evidence, in what’s known as a “shaken baby syndrome” case.
The evidence now shows that the injury that killed the 9-month-old girl in the care of Kim Hoover-Moore was caused by an older injury days before Hoover-Moore noticed problems with the baby in her home daycare in 2002, according to a court filing requesting a new trial.
Hoover-Moore, 57, was convicted at trial the following year based on a coroner’s assessment that the child, Samaisha Benson, suffered from shaken baby syndrome.
In 2018, former 10TV anchor Jerry Revish spoke with Kim Hoover-Moore in prison where she maintained her innocence.
Then, earlier this year, a former deputy Franklin County coroner signed an affidavit indicating that a new analysis of the baby’s injuries showed evidence of an older, undetected injury that could have led to the bleeding that killed the child.
Based on the new review, “I cannot conclude at the present time that pathologically the injuries suffered by Samaisha definitely occurred within the time window that Ms. Hoover-Moore was in charge of her care,” Dr. Patrick Fardal wrote in a Feb. 18 affidavit. “The acute changes all occurred within a 4-5 day window before her death.”
Fardal declined to comment Thursday.
Franklin County Judge Carl Aveni granted the new trial request, vacated Hoover-Moore’s conviction and ordered her immediate release.
A message was left with the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office, which earlier Thursday said it wouldn’t oppose the request for a new trial, based “on the State’s extensive investigation and given the totality of facts in this case.”
An attorney for Hoover-Moore said Thursday that justice had been done after 19 years.
“The medical evidence proves what Ms. Hoover-Moore has always said: she is innocent,” Joanna Sanchez, director of the Ohio Public Defender’s Wrongful Conviction Project, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Hoover-Moore’s attorneys believe the exoneration is the first in Ohio involving a shaken baby conviction, according to data compiled by the University of Michigan’s National Registry of Exonerations.
Nationally, shaken baby convictions have come under scrutiny as new evidence challenges the diagnosis, with multiple exonerations. In April, a California man was freed after 15 years in prison after prosecutors and a judge agreed that the scientific research underlying shaken baby syndrome has changed significantly in recent years.
The infant’s father dropped the girl off at Hoover-Moore’s Columbus home on Nov. 29, 2002, according to Hoover-Moore’s June motion for a new trial by attorney Kort Gatterdam.
After seeing the baby couldn’t hold her head up and wasn’t breathing properly, Hoover-Moore called 911. The baby was taken to the Columbus Children’s Hospital where she was treated and diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome based on a CAT scan showing a skull fracture and internal brain bleeding. The girl died Dec. 1, 2002.
Following a 2018 request for a new trial, Hoover-Moore’s attorneys were able to access the victim’s medical records, radiology images and autopsy reports, and a new analysis found evidence of an injury weeks or even months old.
Hoover-Moore’s motion for a new trial also included police reports referring to domestic violence incidents involving the infant’s parents, including a case where the father struck the mother while she was holding another child, and an incident where the father allegedly shook that child to quiet her.
The new testimony indicates that, “rather than the medical evidence pinpointing Ms. Hoover-Moore as the only possible perpetrator, any number of people who had access to Samaisha in the weeks or months before her death could have been responsible for her fatal injuries,” according to the filing.
A message was left with a phone listing for Samaisha Benson’s mother.