After telling the judge they were exhausted, members of a deadlocked jury were sequestered Thursday for the second night after failing to reach a verdict in the trial of a midwife charged with the death of a newborn during a home delivery.
Earlier in the day, the Waukegan jury told Lake County Circuit Judge James K. Booras that they were evenly split on the guilt or innocence of Yvonne Cryns.
The 50-year-old lay midwife from Richmond in McHenry County is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of the baby, who was stillborn in a feet-first breech position Aug. 19 in the Round Lake Beach home of Heather and Louis Verzi.
The Verzis testified that they don’t blame Cryns for their son’s death.
Toby Cryns, the son of Yvonne Cryns and her husband, Greg, said Thursday that he has confidence in the jury system, but condemned the decision by Lake County prosecutors to charge his mother in the infant’s death.
“We’re very confident that the jury will see that justice prevails,” Toby Cryns said, breaking the family’s silence of past weeks. “I feel we’ve been wronged by [prosecutors]. They are declaring war on anyone who doesn’t call 911 in any instance.”
He was referring to the prosecution’s argument that Cryns was criminally reckless in her failure to call 911 during the 45-minute delivery, or when she tried to revive the infant for 12 minutes before telling Louis Verzi to call for emergency assistance.
Cryns testified that she saw no reason to call 911 any earlier. “Many babies are born looking like that,” Cryns told the jury, referring to the baby’s limp and pale appearance. “I felt at any moment he would open his eyes.”
