No Retrial In Baby's 2003 Death; All Charges Against Del Prete Dropped

ROMEOVILLE, IL — A Will County judge has dismissed a retrial of Jennifer Del Prete, a former child care worker at a Romeoville daycare, who was convicted in the shaken baby death of a 14-month-old girl who died in 2003.

Del Prete was released from prison in 2014, after new evidence cast doubt on findings that Del Prete shook the baby. Now all charges against her have been dropped.

Del Prete was accused of violently shaking baby Isabella Zielinski, while caring for the girl in 2002. The infant, three months old at the time of the incident, died 10 months later, and Del Prete was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to the minimum 20 years in prison. Del Prete claims the injuries that killed Isabella happened long before the baby arrived at the Romeoville daycare.

After nearly a decade behind bars, Del Prete was released in 2014, months after undergraduates with Northwestern's Medill Justice Project uncovered a letter written by a Romeoville detective casting doubt on a pathologist's findings that Del Prete shook baby Isabella. In the letter, Det. Ken Kroll, now Romeoville's police chief, said the pathologist who performed an autopsy has significant doubts that Isabella died from shaken-baby syndrome.

On Wednesday, Del Prete's retrial was dismissed. The court order states that the finalized expert report of Dr. Thomas Bennett was received.

"After careful consideration of the newly obtained expert opinion in conjunction with all of the other physical and opinion evidence in this case, the People no longer believe they can sustain their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt int his matter," the court order reads.

Related: Shaken Baby Death: Daycare Worker Sues Romeoville, Plainfield For Wrongful Conviction