Fatal Child-Abuse Charges Dismissed in "Shaken Baby" Case

Krystal Voss lost her nineteen-month-old son. Then she lost her freedom. But after serving more than a decade behind bars, she's finally heard the two little words she's dreamed that a judge would be uttering some day: Case dismissed.

In 2004 Voss was found guilty by an Alamosa jury of fatal child abuse in the death of her son and sentenced to twenty years in prison. But last month Alamosa District Court Judge Pattie Swift ruled that Voss's conviction should be thrown out because her attorneys at trial failed to summon any medical experts to challenge the prosecution's claim that Kyran Gaston-Voss's death was the result of a violent shaking. The decision came after new testimony by nationally recognized pediatric specialists that the toddler's injuries, including a devastating brain injury, could have been caused by an accidental fall.

On Friday, September 8, another judge dismissed all charges against Voss at the request of 12th Judicial District Attorney Crista Newmyer-Olsen. Voss learned about the DA's motion for dismissal in a text message from her attorney shortly before the hearing; a few minutes later, her nightmare was over at last.

"I'm so grateful that I have my freedom," she says. "Now I just want to clear my name."