Jury convicts mother in death of 2-year-old

Janet Ostlund was found guilty Friday of killing her 2-year-old adopted daughter, Maria, by shaking her so violently that her brain was injured.

The 33-year-old Robbinsdale woman had been charged with second-degree murder - unintentionally killing the child during an assault. Sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of nearly nine years for a conviction.

Ostlund, 4019 Beard Av. N., sat stunned and motionless next to her attorney, Steve Meshbesher, as the verdict was read in Hennepin County District Court. Judge Robert Schumacher ordered her into custody pending sentencing Feb. 6, despite Meshbesher's plea that she remain free on bail.

The jury deliberated about 12 hours Friday and yesterday before reaching its verdict at the end of a nine-day trial. Jurors apparently rejected defense testimony from physicians who said medical evidence was insufficient to prove that the baby was fatally shaken.

Meshbesher held the defendant's hand as she sat at the edge of her chair with a fixed stare as she heard the jurors polled. Her attorney, angry and distraught, said he would appeal. "I'm very disappointed," he said later. "The system went awry."

Yesterday afternoon the jurors asked Schumacher to explain the concept of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." He told them to read the legal instructions he gave them at the end of the trial.

The trial centered on Ostlund's credibility, whether she was capable of abusing the child, and whether the medical evidence proved Maria had been shaken or had fallen off a couch.

Some of Ostlund's friends and relatives testified that she was rough with the child. Others testified that she was gentle and loving.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner, Dr. Garry Peterson, ascribed the death to homicide by shaking because the child had a massive brain injury but there were no wounds on her scalp. There was a small amount of blood under her scalp, but he said that could have been the result of a minor bump on the head and could not have caused the brain damage.

Physicians called by defense attorney Meshbesher criticized the procedures Peterson's office used to investigate the case and contended the child died after falling from the couch. They said the blood found under her scalp at the back of the head indicated she had landed there and they said that was the cause of the brain damage. They said she landed on a smooth linoleum floor and that would not leave a mark on her scalp.

The defense doctors also said the child was more susceptible to brain injury because her head and brain were abnormally small and because she probably was retarded.

The prosecution doctors disagreed with that theory.