Fairfax day care provider convicted of child abuse

A Fairfax County day care provider was convicted Thursday of felony child abuse and child cruelty, with a jury finding that she shook a four-month-old boy and caused him brain damage.

A jury rejected the defense of Trudy Munoz Rueda, 45, that shaken baby syndrome was not supported by science.

Doctors who treated the baby, Noah Whitmer, said he was having seizures, had a brain hemorrhage and blood in his eyes when he was brought to Inova Fairfax Hospital on April 20, indications that he had been violently shaken.

Noah spent more than two weeks in the hospital and he continues to have seizures, his mother said.

Munoz Rueda testified that she never shook the baby.

The jury will return Friday to consider sentences of two to 10 years on the child abuse charge and one to five years on the cruelty charge.

-- Tom Jackman