Plea in 1957 Child Death Case Reached; Wisconsin Mother Only Faces 45 Days in Jail

A 76-year-old Wisconsin woman reached a plea agreement in the case where she was accused of killing her infant daughter more than a half-century ago.

Sheboygan County prosecutors and the defense agreed to recommend Ruby Klokow be sentenced to 10 years of probation with 45 days in jail after pleading no contest to second-degree murder.

The decision has caused an outrage by some as they believe she should be spending the rest of her life in jail.

"Lock her up for the rest of her miserable life. She never deserved all these years of freedom she had. Make her pay for her atrocious actions against her own children," one user wrote on a Huffington Post blog.

Klokow was charged with second-degree murder in the death of her 6-month-old daughter Jeaneen. It came only after her son came forward in 2008 with alleged vicious child abuse.

Initially Klokow told detective in 1957, she was busy with her son James when Jeaneen rolled of the couch and bumped her head. An autopsy determined Jeaneen died of a brain injury and the death was ruled "accidental."

Klokow was questioned for five hours on two separate occasions and she admitted that she had been frustrated and angry that both her children had begun to cry at the same time. She might have roughly thrown the baby on the couch, but the child bounced to the floor.

James Klokow Jr, now 57, told police that his mother blamed him for his sister's death, District Attorney Joe DeCecco said.

"He always thought that he was the reason Jeaneen died," DeCecco said, because his mother had convinced him.

Klokow's second child, Scott was found dead in his crib seven year after Jeaneen, AP confirmed. In the criminal complaint Klokow allegedly plead guilty to killing her daughter, but no accusation has been made on the account of her son.

Klokow entered the plea on Monday in an appearance before Sheboygan County Judge Angela Sutkiewicz and will consider the recommended sentence at a hearing set for April 15.

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