Babysitter sentenced to 21 years in prison for killing infant

A Brooklyn Center woman charged in the death of a 9-month-old she was babysitting was sentenced on Monday.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Jennifer Lynn Baldwin, 38, was sentenced to 255 months (21 years, 3 months) in prison. She was found guilty by a jury in June of two counts of unintentional second-degree murder.

The attorney’s office said Baldwin’s sentence was significantly above what was recommended by state sentencing guidelines, which was possible because the jury found aggravating circumstances in Colton Senogles’ death, such as his age, vulnerability and the fact that he could not run, call for help or protect himself.

According to a criminal complaint and evidence from the trial, Baldwin called 911 at about 11:46 a.m. on March 15, 2018. The complaint states she called Colton’s mother 10 minutes earlier, saying something wasn’t right with the child, then waited 10 minutes to call police. Brooklyn Center police and paramedics found Colton laboring to breathe, and Baldwin told police the child’s mother dropped him off about an hour earlier.

He died in a hospital five days later.

Baldwin initially said she didn’t know what happened, but when confronted with autopsy results, admitted she handled him aggressively, the attorney’s office said.