The Springfield unlicensed daycare provider convicted of causing the death of a baby left in her care in 2022 was sentenced to 24 years in prison on Monday, May 13, 2024.
A jury found 49-year-old Deborah K. Lundstrom guilty in February of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child causing the death of a child, first-degree involuntary manslaughter, eight counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child creating substantial risk; and one charge of operating a child-care facility without a license.
Lundstrom was caring for nine children under the age of 3 in her home on the 2800 block of North Washington Avenue in Springfield on March 2, 2022. That afternoon, Lundstrom placed most of the children, including 8-month-old Coleman Shirley, in their car seats and left the home for 12 minutes to go pick up her son from school.
About 10 minutes after Lundstrom returned home, she reportedly discovered Coleman Shirley was not breathing and called 911. The baby was pronounced dead that day at Mercy Hospital in Springfield.
Greene County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Elizabeth Fax told Circuit Judge Todd Myers that no one from Coleman Shirley’s family would be speaking at the sentencing hearing, because they already gave their victim impact statements to the court in February. Still, the courtroom gallery was packed standing room only with Coleman’s family, friends and other parents and grandparents of children who were in Lundstrom’s house the day Coleman died.
“So many victims were created by her actions on that day, and quite frankly, on other days she did this, as well,” Fax said.
Fax spoke about some responses Lundstrom wrote as part of the sentencing assessment report: that Lundstrom doesn’t feel like she “took a risk when the offense occurred” and Lundstrom doesn’t want to be called a criminal.
“But she is a criminal because she committed these crimes,” Fax said. “It could have been any one of those children, but unfortunately for the Shirley family, it was them.”
Credit: (C)Jym_Wilson
Lundstrom spoke briefly before being sentenced, saying she was “remorseful for the incident that happened.”
“We all lost baby Cole that day,” Lundstrom said.
This statement was met with an audible groan from many of those in the gallery.
Lundstrom then said she wanted to “give sincere sympathy to the family,” and then sat down.
Judge calls death of child ‘every parent’s nightmare’
Following arguments from the prosecution and defense, Myers took a brief recess to review his notes and the arguments made during the sentencing phase of Lundstrom's case.
Myers returned to the courtroom and asked Lundstrom to stand.
“Whenever there is a death of a child, that is every parent’s nightmare,” Myers said, in part. “When that death is avoidable and preventable, it is angering.”
Myers reminded Lundstrom of the lies she told the parents of the children in her care; she lied about how many children were in her home daycare and about how they would be taken care of when and if she had to leave the house.
Myers reminded Lundstrom about Max Boomgaarden, one of the children at her home the day Coleman Shirley died. At the trial, Boomgaarden’s mother testified about how her young son never crawled or reached expected developmental milestones while he was in Lundstrom’s care. At the time, the Boomgaardens didn’t realize how much time their child was spending in a car seat on a typical day.
Myers then followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Lundstrom to 20 years for endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death charge; seven years for involuntary manslaughter; four years for each count of endangering the welfare of a child creating a substantial risk; and 15 days in jail for operating a child-care facility without a license.
The 20-year and 7-year sentences — for the crimes that caused Coleman Shirley's death — are to run concurrently to each other. The four-year sentences — for the crimes related to the other children in Lundstrom’s care that day — are to run concurrently with each other.
But those two groups of concurrent sentences will run consecutively, for a total sentence of 24 years in Missouri prisons.
Defense attorney questions jurors’ intentions
At the sentencing hearing, Lundstrom defense attorney Erica Mynarich said she believed the jurors intended the sentences run concurrently and asked Judge Myers to sentence her client to concurrent sentences.
The jurors were not allowed to specify in their recommendation to the judge if they wanted the sentences to run consecutively or concurrently.
One of the jurors, who asked to not be named, attended the sentencing hearing and spoke with the Hauxeda afterward.
The juror was adamant: “We wanted it to be a life sentence.”
Under Missouri law, a life sentence is 30 years in prison.
Asked why she came to the sentencing hearing, the juror responded, “closure and accountability — both for the judge and (Lundstrom).”
“It was very hard. We sat back there and cried,” the juror said. “We took the carseat and the pictures (of Coleman Shirley).”
She said the jurors were very thoughtful and carefully considered all the testimony and evidence.
“I took it very seriously,” she said of serving on the jury. “I don’t want someone to get railroaded.”
Medical examiner: Baby was strangled by car seat strap
During the trial in February, Dr. Deiter Duff, the Greene County Medical Examiner, testified that the baby’s cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation caused by the car seat’s buckle and strap. Duff testified in detail about the marks on the baby’s neck that matched the car seat’s buckle and strap.
Springfield Police Cpl. Jason Marcum, with the Child Victim Unit, the lead detective on the Lundstrom case, testified at the trial about his initial interview with Lundstrom at the scene on March 2, 2022, and then later at a police station on March 7, 2022. The hour-long video recording of that second interview was played.
The video showed Marcum using a doll and car seat to explain to Lundstrom how the medical examiner believes the baby was strangled by the car seat’s strap and buckle. The evidence — which includes marks on Coleman’s neck that match the buckle — shows the strap and buckle that goes between the legs likely was not buckled, which allowed for Coleman to slip down to where the chest clip strangled him.
Parents wondered how much time their children spent in car seats
During the trial, parents of the nine children who were at the Lundstrom home on March 2, 2022, testified Lundstrom would meet them at the front door when they picked up and dropped off their children. They testified Lundstrom had a baby gate at the entrance of her home and parents did not come inside as a “COVID protocol.”
Several parents testified they believed or were told that Lundstrom was caring for four children other than their own, for a total of five. One parent testified Lundstrom told him she cared for six children.
Several of the parents testified they believed Lundstrom was a licensed child care provider. Others said they didn’t know.
In Missouri, it is illegal for an unlicensed daycare provider to care for more than six children at one time.
Throughout the trial, Lundstrom’s attorneys repeatedly said Lundstrom’s 18-year-old daughter was either at the house or Lundstrom believed her daughter was at the house on March 2, 2022 — despite evidence and testimony to the contrary.
Judge denies Lundstrom’s request for a new trial
Prior to the sentencing hearing, Lundstrom’s defense attorneys filed a motion for a judgment of an acquittal or a new trial.
In the nine-page motion, Lundstrom’s attorneys claim there was insufficient evidence on the charge of endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death, arguing there was no evidence that Coleman Shirely died as a result of being left unattended in the car seat — that it was possible the baby stopped breathing after Lundstrom returned home.
Lundstrom’s attorneys allege there was insufficient evidence on the involuntary manslaughter charge and there was an instructional error by the judge to the jury.
Judge Myers denied the motion for a new trial at the sentencing hearing.
