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A Wisconsin court has rejected the appeal of a West Bend man convicted of battering his infant daughter, who later died. In the appeal, Michael Below, 33, argued he wasn’t the cause of death – the cause, he said, was the decision made by family members to terminate her life support.

Madison Below was two months old in 2008 when, according to a police investigation, her father, Michael Below, struck her head against a changing table several times to make her stop crying. Below later wrote in a letter to the girl’s mother that he “went crazy from all the s—t that has gone on.”

At Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, doctors concluded she had suffered a “devastating” brain injury and could not be resuscitated. Family members chose to remove her from life support, and she died several days later.

The Waukesha County Medical Examiner, Lynda Biedrzycki, performed the girl’s autopsy and testified at Below’s trial that the cause of death was “blunt head trauma.” The jury convicted him of first degree reckless homicide and child abuse. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison.

On appeal, Below argued the jury should have been instructed that the termination of life support could have been considered an “intervening cause” of the girl’s death.

“While Below’s acts exposed his daughter to numerous medical procedures, with their predictable and attendant risks, it is unfair to hold him responsible for the withdrawal of medical treatment that purposely terminated her life,” said a brief filed by his attorney.

Wisconsin’s Second District Court of Appeals, in ruling against Below, noted the prosecution only needed to show Below’s actions were a “substantial factor” in his daughter’s death.

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