Woman Accused In Death Of Infant Gets Four Years

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Author: By Lisha Gayle

Doris Ravenscraft, accused of inflicting fatal injuries on an adoptive baby girl, has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Ravenscraft, 32, formerly of St. Charles, was sentenced Monday by Judge William Lohmar of the St. Charles County Circuit Court.

Ravenscraft, more recently of Jonesburg, Mo., adamantly denied having harmed the baby.

In October, Ravenscraft entered an Alford plea to the charge of involuntary manslaughter. With the plea, she admitted that prosecutors probably had enough evidence to convict her, but she denied any wrongdoing.

''We couldn't come up with an explanation'' for the injuries, said Charles Lampin, Ravenscraft's attorney.

Lohmar retained jurisdiction of the case so he can review it after 120 days and decide whether to place Ravenscraft on probation, Lampin said.

The baby was Rachel Collins Ravenscraft, 10 months old, who died of head injuries. An autopsy also found that the child had broken bones in her skull, a forearm and both lower legs, court records say.

The child died Feb. 9 of last year, two days after she had been brought to Barnes St. Peters Hospital. At the time, Ravenscraft and her husband, Kenneth Ravenscraft, were in the process of adopting the child.

Ravenscraft, formerly of the 800 block of Butterfly Lane in St. Charles County, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter for inflicting the child's head injuries and with second-degree assault for breaking the child's leg, the charges say.