Mother gets 105 months in death of daughter, 2

Author: Dennis Cassano; Staff Writer

Saying, "I never hurt Maria, your honor, and I can't believe this is happening to me," Janet Ostlund was sentenced Wednesday to nearly nine years in prison for shaking her 2-year-old adopted daughter to death.

The Robbinsdale housewife has maintained that the child injured her head when she fell from a couch onto a linoleum floor.

Ronald and Steve Meshbesher, the attorneys for Ostlund, 34, said they will appeal her second-degree murder conviction.

Hennepin County District Judge Robert Schumacher denied defense motions for a new trial and rejected a request that Ostlund be put on probation. He also denied prosecutor John Brink's motion to double the 105-month sentence specified under the state's sentencing guidelines.

Ostlund, 4019 Beard Av. N., was convicted by a jury Jan. 23 of unintentionally killing the child during an assault.

The nine-day trial pitted a dozen physicians, including medical examiners, against each other on the question of whether she was violently shaken or had fallen from the couch.

It also pitted friends and relatives against each other on whether Ostlund would hurt a child.

Ronald Meshbesher yesterday described the medical testimony as "a battle of experts" that he said did not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. He also argued that Brink improperly cross-examined Ostlund when she testified in her own defense.

Brink said that when Ostlund testified that her daughter had fallen from the top of the couch rather than from its arm, that was the first time she had made that claim.

When he cross-examined her, he asked if it were true that she had told a police officer that the child had fallen off the back or over the side of the couch. She said she did not remember. But Meshbesher said Brink should have called the officer to testify to what Ostlund said so he could be cross-examined.

Schumacher refused a defense motion during the trial to order the jury to disregard the questions and answers about what Ostlund told police, and he refused to allow Steve Meshbesher, in his closing arguments to the jury, to raise questions about why the officer was not called.

Schumacher said, "I do feel the defendant had a fair trial. I know the jury had a very difficult time" in reaching a verdict. It deliberated one evening and a full day.