DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 1997         TAG: 9709240454

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   31 lines

WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO KILLING INFANT SHE WAS BABY-SITTING

A woman who was accused of fatally injuring a 1-year-old boy she was baby-sitting pleaded guilty in Circuit Court on Tuesday to second-degree murder.

Karla Ivonne Creel Gosha was charged with killing Evan James Grandelis, nearly a year after the boy died. The cause of death was originally thought to be accidental, then detectives discovered new evidence that led to the murder charge.

No one testified Tuesday, but prosecutors said evidence would have shown that Gosha was watching the boy along with two other children when he was injured. Gosha initially told police that an older child struck Grandelis.

The initial investigation began Dec. 11, 1995, when police and paramedics were called to Grandelis' home in the 1600 block of N. Oriole Drive. At the residence, they found the boy suffering from a severe head injury.

He was taken to a hospital, where he remained in critical condition before dying several days later. The medical examiner then ruled that the cause of death was accidental.

But nearly a year later, detectives reopened the case, after their investigation revealed that Gosha had shaken the child, causing his head to hit the floor two to three times.

Gosha, who was a neighbor, was arrested in November 1996. She is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 11. KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu