Two men, two trials for dead toddlers (Lake County, Illinois)

What a "coincidence." In just one county (Lake County, Illinois), two different men, JESSE JAMES GILMAN and JOSE ANTONIO MENDOZA are going to trial on the same day for killing two different toddlers. The article does not specify the relationship of the two men to the children (a lot of news articles are guilty of this), but I would guess they are boyfriends or dads.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/lake/1689895,lake-court-bf-0729.article

Crown Point: Trials begin Nov. 16 in child abuse deaths

The jury trials of two men charged with killing babies are both scheduled to begin Nov. 16 in different Lake County courtrooms.

Jesse James Gilman Jr., 22, of DeMotte, who is charged with murder, battery and neglect of a dependent in the death of 18-month-old Anthony Mogan in Lowell, had been scheduled for jury trial before Lake Superior Court Judge Salvador Vasquez starting Monday.

Defense attorneys Sonya Scott-Dix and Derla Gross asked Tuesday that the trial be postponed because of discovery issues and asked that their client be released from the Lake County Jail, where he is being held without bond.

Vasquez granted the first request and denied the second. Mogan died Oct. 5 of blunt force trauma to his abdomen, court records state.

Meanwhile, Jose Antonio Mendoza, 29, of Hammond, charged with murder and neglect of a dependent in the Oct. 4 death of 17-month-old Savannah Fullgraf, is scheduled for jury trial before Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Ross Boswell.

The toddler "showed signs that she had received an extreme amount of physical abuse," court records state. The girl was taken to St. Margaret Mercy Hospital in Hammond and flown to University of Chicago Hospitals. The Cook County, Ill., medical examiner's office listed the cause of death as multiple injuries due to child abuse.