Dad convicted of reckless homicide, gets 18 years in prison for death of infant son (Montello, Wisconsin)

Dad BENJAMIN D. KAMEDULSKI has been sentenced to 18 years in prison and six years of extended supervision in the death of his infant son. Dad pleaded no contest to the felony 2nd-degree reckless homicide charges. With dad's criminal--including five prior felony convictions--he never should have been allowed around babies or young children. Mothers are encouraged to be way too trusting of men, especially men with criminal and/or violent histories. These types do not make good babysitters, parents, or infant caretakers.  

http://www.wiscnews.com/portagedailyregister/news/local/article_7e0e8c60-df51-11e0-8ade-001cc4c03286.html

Father gets 18 years in prison for infant son's death
By Shannon Green, Daily Register
Posted: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 11:13 pm

MONTELLO - The words "heinous," "tragic" and "lack of remorse" were spoken in a Montello courtroom Wednesday as the father of an infant who died in 2009 of injuries received while in his care was ordered to serve 18 years in prison.

Calling it proper for someone who does not have the capacity to feel empathy or remorse, Judge Richard Wright sentenced Benjamin D. Kamedulski to 18 years in prison followed by six years of extended supervision at a hearing that took place Wednesday in Marquette County Circuit Court.

Authorities say Kamedulski, while caring for his infant son, Ian, on March 18, 2009, shook him hard enough to cause a fatal brain injury and dropped him, causing other injuries.

Ian suffered bruises to his forehead, chest and buttocks, similar to finger marks on a child held tightly; he also suffered from signs of severe brain injury consistent with being shaken rather than falling down stairs, according to the complaint.

Kamedulski, 29, pleaded no contest Monday in July to felony second-degree reckless homicide as a repeat offender.

"There's nothing I can say that will ever convey how I feel or bring back my son Ian. What happened was a tragic accident, and there's not a day that I don't think about it," Kamedulski said to Wright at the hearing. "I take full responsibility for my son's death because I am his father."

Before pronouncing the sentence, Wright said it is difficult to imagine a crime more serious; he said it is the kind of thing that doctors, lawyers, law enforcement and judges lose sleep over, trying to imagine how it could happen.

A substantial penalty is warranted in the case, Wright said.

"These things are simply not going to be tolerated," Wright said.

Kamedulski's statement that he takes full responsibility was not adequate, Wright said, in a death that was more than tragic.

"It the kind of thing where you'd be hard to even look at yourself in the mirror, you'd be so sick about it, even if the (death wasn't) intended," Wright said.

"Some people just don't have seem fully developed capacity for empathy," Wright said, which is needed before people can feel true remorse. "That capacity does seem to be missing here."

At the hearing, tears and grief showed on the faces of the infant's mother, aunt and great-grandmother - and at least once on the face of his father - while attorneys on both sides described Ian's injuries and Kamedulski's behavior before and after the child's death.

Ian's mother, Kayla Kamedulski, spoke tearfully to Wright before the sentencing, saying that it was Benjamin Kamedulski's responsibility to keep Ian safe when the injuries happened. She said she believes she will never know what happened on March 18, 2009.

"I know he will never, ever tell the truth," Kayla said of Kamedulski.

Ian's aunt, Holly Holmes, also speaking emotionally, said the loss of Ian was shocking but that she was not shocked that it was at Kamedulki's hands.

"I expected some empathy or remorse at first," she said, but never saw it. She requested a 20-year prison sentence, saying that Kamedulski "cannot understand basic moral or ethic principles," and that she believes that Kamedulski would have continued to abuse his family if the death had not occurred.

Assistant Attorney General Richard Dufour, who until recently was Marquette County district attorney, returned as special prosecutor in the case and argued for a 20-year prison sentence.

The infant suffered injuries that resulted from impacts and from shaking, Dufour said at the hearing.

Ian was abused and ultimately killed by "his father, a person who was there to protect him, not to murder him," Dufour said.

Citing Kamedulski's criminal history, which includes five felony convictions and numerous violations while on extended supervision, Dufour described Kamedulski as "a dangerous person" who would continue to commit crimes when living free in society.

A substantial penalty is need for "this heinous, this terrible crime that has happened to this young child," Dufour said.

Emergency responders arrived March 18, 2009, at Kamedulski's Duck Creek Road home after Kamedulski phoned 911. They found Ian without a pulse and not breathing, according to the Marquette County Sheriff's Department. Ian died at Children's Hospital in Madison the next day.

Kamedulski reportedly told authorities that he shook Ian after the child had fallen down a steep set of wooden stairs, according to a criminal complaint.

Wright ordered Kamedulski to serve the 18-year prison sentence after completing a 2-year, 11-month prison sentence, given in 2009 after his extended supervision was revoked on a 2006 conviction of felony manufacture/delivery of cocaine from an incident in September 2004 in Winnebago County; he was convicted in 2006 in Outagamie County on a similar felony charge and of felony burglary as party to a crime in 2000 in Winnebago County.