Carpentersville man's trial begins in toddler's death

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP -- After his attorney rejected a last-minute plea deal from prosecutors, accused murderer Andres Velazquez went to trial Monday.

Velazquez, 28, of the 100 block of Woodland Court, Carpentersville, is charged with first-degree homicide in the December 2005 death of 2-year-old Ernest LaFleur. Authorities said Velazquez flung the boy around his apartment several times, inflicting severe head trauma and other injuries.

At the time of the incident, Velazquez was baby-sitting Ernest and a sister of the boy, his then-girlfriend's children. Velazquez told investigators the two were only playing around when the boy sustained the injuries.

But Kane County Assistant State's Attorney Bill Engerman said Velazquez's acts never could be misconstrued as horsing around.

"Judge, if this was play, even rough play, it would have ceased" when Ernest showed signs of distress, Engerman said during opening statements Monday.

Engerman called the boy's injuries "abusive head trauma" that "could not have been caused by a single fall," as Velazquez originally claimed.

According to prosecutors, on Dec. 30, 2005, Velazquez took the children to his apartment after visits to a video arcade at Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee and McDonald's. As Velazquez and Ernest played, Velazquez tossed the boy clear across his king-size bed, threw him several feet onto a partially inflated air mattress, then dropped the boy on the ground after holding him above his head, they said.

In a telephone conversation, Velazquez told the boy's mother that Ernest was having trouble breathing, then went to pick her up at the restaurant where she was working a late shift. The couple took Ernest to Sherman Hospital in Elgin, where he "was admitted in a limp, unresponsive condition," Engerman said.

"Judge, his breaths came in gasps and he had to be intubated," Engerman continued.

Engerman said the boy suffered hemorrhages, swelling and contusions to his brain, a fractured collarbone, and seizures. He died on Jan. 6 at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago after days of extensive treatment and eventual brain death, witnesses said.

Kane County Public Defender David Kliment called his client's actions "reckless" but told Judge Timothy Sheldon, who is trying the case, he shouldn't infer that Velazquez actually set out to murder the child.

"The medical evidence is what it is," Kliment said in his opening statement. "But I don't know how that shows the mental state of the defendant. The defendant is not guilty of first-degree murder. We believe he is guilty of involuntary manslaughter."

Ernest's mother Chanet Robinson testified that Velazquez had watched the boy and his then-4-year-old sister a few times before, and that the defendant had a good relationship with the children. Robinson was working two jobs at the time -- one as a sales representative and another as a restaurant cashier.

Last week, Velazquez waived his right to a jury trial. Also, prosecutors announced they no longer were seeking the death penalty for the defendant.

The case could come to an end Wednesday.