BATTLE CREEK (WKZO-AM) — For the second time, Leo Ackley of Battle Creek has been found guilty of first-degree murder.
He was also found guilty of first-degree child abuse and will once again receive a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
Ackley was convicted for a second time for the violent death of his girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter, Baylee Stenman, in 2011.
He was given a new trial after a series of appeals led to the Michigan Supreme Court giving him a second trial. They ruled that his original attorney failed to put on the stand an expert to refute the doctors who concluded the little girl’s injuries were consistent with child abuse.
This time, an expert did testify in his defense, that a previous injury could have led to thesame subdural hematoma that was cited as the cause of the child’s death.
That testimony was introduced this time and the jury still found him guilty. Ackley’s family is vowing to appeal this verdict, too.
