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Monday, September 2, 2013
TOILET BOWL CHALLENGE • LOCAL, A3
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Spectators crowd to view 9th annual race
Big plays lead NIU to victory over Iowa
Murder charge in shaken baby case DeKalb man in jail on $3M bond after 6-week-old daughter dies Friday afternoon By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI jduchnowski@shawmedia.com
Keith Terrell
DeKALB – The 23-year-old DeKalb man accused of shaking his 6-week-old daughter was charged with murder after the baby died at 7 p.m. Friday, police said. Keith Terrell, of the 700 block of North
Annie Glidden Road, was arrested early Thursday a charge of aggravated battery of a child. He appeared in court on Sunday morning at the DeKalb County Courthouse. His bond was set at $3 million, of which he’ll need $300,000 for bail. First-degree murder typically is punishable with between 20 and 60 years in prison.
Terrell gave police several accounts of how the girl was injured, but ultimately told them he shook her about 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, court records show. The baby was crying and having trouble sleeping when he squeezed her tightly around her chest and shook her, court records show. His daughter was in a Rockford hospital
on life support Thursday morning, police said. The girl suffered bleeding on both sides of the brain, as well as along the back, court records show. She also suffered swelling of the brain, retinal hemorrhaging, multiple rib fractures and bruising. Terrell will next appear in court Thursday.
Citing sarin, U.S. seeks the OK to act against Syria
DeKALB CORN FEST
Embracingtradition
By BRADLEY KLAPPER The Associated Press
Photos by Mary Beth Nolan for Shaw Media
Volunteers Austin Buehler (left) of Malta and Bob Lavigne scoop out cooked corn Saturday at the DeKalb Corn Festival. Bryan Klatt, corn boil supervisor, said more than 15,000 ears of free corn were boiled and eaten in the 36-year-old festival. It was cooked using a 1918 steam tractor.
Residents welcome festival’s downtown return By ANDREA AZZO news@daily-chronicle.com DeKALB – Cortland resident Donna Klemm said she has been to the Corn Fest every year as long as she can remember, and now that it was back downtown, it was much better. “When it was at the airport, it was just a DeKalb festival. It wasn’t Corn Fest,” Klemm said. “Corn Fest is in downtown DeKalb in the community of DeKalb.” The festival spent the past five years at DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport, but returned to its downtown origins last Friday. The downtown location also gave attendees the opportunity to visit the local businesses, which would benefit from the big crowds, Klemm said. After heavy rains temporarily shut
Madeline Nara, a volunteer from Target, butters corn Saturday at the DeKalb Corn Festival. down the festival Friday evening, crowds flocked to downtown DeKalb on Saturday for the corn boil, carnival rides, beer garden and music. The festival wrapped up Sunday with more chances for attendees to try the carnival rides, eat at the many food
vendors and listen to country music bands. Kany Rojo and her husband, Guillermo, came out to the festival Sunday with their children. Their sons were part of Boy Scout Troop 33, which had a stand at the festival. Kany and Guillermo Rojo have visited Corn Fest for close to a decade and enjoy the downtown location more than the location at the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport. “It just feels more at home with a sense of community,” Kany Rojo said. Their children enjoyed the free games, carnival rides and NIU STEM Outreach exhibitions at the festival. Guillermo Rojo said he noticed there was more food vendors downtown offering Mediterranean and Thai food.
See CORN FEST, page A4
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration geared up for the biggest foreign policy vote since the Iraq war by arguing Sunday that new physical evidence shows the Syrian government used sarin gas in a deadly August attack. With its credibility on the line, the United States must respond, the country’s top diplomat said. Members of Congress, deadlocked on just about everything these days and still on summer break, expressed sharply divergent opinions about whether to give President Barack Obama the go-ahead he requested to retaliate with military force against the Assad regime, and what turning down the commander in chief could mean for America’s reputation. Presenting Obama’s case for military action, Secretary of State John Kerry gave a series of interviews on Sunday news shows outlining the latest information the administration has received about the Aug. 21 attack in the Damascus suburbs that the U.S. says killed 1,429 civilians, including more than 400 children. He said samples collected by first responders added to the growing body of proof that Syria’s government launched a chemical weapons attack. “Samples of hair and blood have been tested and they have reported positive for signatures of sarin,” Kerry said. “Each day that goes by, this case is even stronger. We know that the regime ordered this attack. We know they prepared for it. We know where the rockets came from. We know where they landed. We know the damage that was done afterwards.” Sarin, which affects the nervous system and is toxic in liquid or gas form, can be delivered in missiles, bombs, rockets or artillery shells. The gas is outlawed under international rules of warfare. The reference to hair and blood samples were the first pieces of specific physiological evidence cited by any member of the administration, which previously spoke only about an unnamed nerve agent. Kerry’s assertion coincided with the beginning of a forceful administration appeal for congressional support, now that Obama has declared he will await approval from the House and Senate before ordering any cruise missile strikes or other action. On Capitol Hill, senior administration officials briefed lawmakers in private to explain why the U.S. is compelled to act against President Bashar Assad’s government. Further classified meetings were planned over the next three days.
See SYRIA, page A4
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