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Sentencing set for Austintown man who brain-damaged infant son
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Sentencing is set for 11 a.m. today for Devin Telego, 21, of Austintown after a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court jury found him guilty of one count of child endangerment.
The jury deadlocked on two other charges of child endangerment in connection with the same incident in which Telego is accused of injuring his 3-month-old son, according to a verdict read about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum.
Telego was remanded to the county jail without bond. The judge could sentence him up to three years in prison.
Prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments that Telego was the only person capable of inflicting a severe brain injury on his son. Assistant Prosecutor Steve Maszczak said “the state is satisfied with the verdict.”
Defense attorney Mark Lavelle countered that police charged his client only because no one else was around when the baby was injured. He said investigators have no proof Telego caused the injuries that occurred Jan. 10.
“That’s all they have to offer,” Lavelle said. “This happened on Devin’s watch.”
Telego’s trial began Monday. Jurors started deliberating just before 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Telego’s son had to be taken to Akron Children’s Hospital for emergency brain surgery and then spent a month in the hospital, Maszczak said.
Maszczak told jurors Telego changed his story from the night his son was taken first to the urgent care at St. Elizabeth Austintown Hospital when he was interviewed 10 days later by Austintown police Detective Kathy Dina.
Maszczak reminded jurors a doctor testified the injury the baby suffered was inflicted soon before he was brought in for treatment.
Also, the baby’s mother testified she was gone for 15 or 20 minutes from her home and only Telego was there. When she left, the baby was fine, and when she came back, the baby was unresponsive, Maszczak said.
“It’s indisputable the injuries suffered by [the victim] occurred during that time period,” Maszczak said.
Lavelle said one of the doctors who testified said she was not sure how the baby suffered his injuries, only that they were caused by some kind of trauma and that they may have been sustained because the baby had other brain injuries in the past.
Lavelle also told jurors his client agreed to meet with Dina without a lawyer, and he also testified in his own defense just before summations.
“If he wanted to take cover, he would not have talked to [Dina] or to you,” Lavelle said.