Once shaken baby dies 15 years later

A Tacoma woman died Sunday nearly 15 years after she was violently shaken by her biological father.

Shannon Stiles said her daughter, Baylee, died from complications stemming from the abuse.

In January 2000, 3-month-old Baylee was taken to the hospital, where doctors determined she suffered severe head trauma and suspected child abuse, Stiles said.

Baylee’s biological father and Stiles’ fiance at the time was arrested several weeks later on the day Baylee was released from the hospital, Stiles said.

He later pleaded guilty to second-degree child assault and served about two years of his 46-month sentence, court records show.

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said Wednesday his office likely would file a second-degree murder charge against the father if the Medical Examiner’s Office determines Baylee’s death was a homicide tied to the earlier abuse.

“We’d be looking for causation,” Lindquist said.

After Baylee was released from the hospital, a 19-year-old Stiles had to grow up, she recalled.

“I had to be a mom of a disabled child,” Stiles said. “She ate through a feeding tube into her stomach. She never rolled over. She never sat up on her own.”

Baylee underwent nearly 20 surgeries and spent 15 years not being able to walk, talk or do anything on her own, Stiles said. Her health started to decline rapidly in December.

Stiles made the decision to pull her off life support several weeks later.

“They let me climb in bed with her, and I just wrapped myself around her, held her hand, wrapped my knees around her knees and let her take her last breath,” she said. “And then I laid in bed with her for an hour until after she passed.”

Stiles said it is difficult to be inside her Tacoma home without her daughter, but she realizes that’s where Baylee was at peace. It was where she was happy, Stiles said.

“I hope people will remember her love of music, her love of family, her smile, her happiness,” Stiles said.

“Never shake a baby. If you’re mad or upset or if a baby is crying and you’re frustrated, put it down. A baby has never died from crying.”

News Tribune staff writer Adam Lynn contributed to this report.