Former Champlin educator convicted of head trauma to 6-month-old child

A former Champlin daycare guard has been sentenced to more than seven years for shooting a 6-month-old boy “a little harder than normal” and causing him serious brain damage.

Michelle M. Holte, 59, was sentenced Friday in Hennepin County District Court. She had pleaded guilty to first-degree assault for injuring the boy Oct. 18 at her home in the 11700 block of Colorado Avenue N.

With time served since his arrest, Holte is expected to serve approximately five years in prison and the remainder of his approximately 7 1/2-year sentence on supervised release.

Holte's day care license, which the state has since revoked, allowed her to care for up to 10 children in her home.

The criminal complaint says the boy, whose identity was not revealed in public court documents, suffered a severe brain injury and bleeding on the brain and elsewhere in the head.

A few days before the sentencing, defense lawyer Derek Archambault pleaded for leniency. He asked Judge Jay Quam to spare Holte jail time and sentence her to probation.

Archambault wrote to the court that the boy's injuries were the “result of a single, isolated act on the part of a person who has thus far lived an impeccable life and presents little risk of reoffending.”[…]For 29 years, she operated a daycare. away from home, lovingly caring for and protecting countless children during this time.

Prosecutors countered that Holte did not call 911 or the boy's parents after the incident.

“A child care provider plays a special and heightened role in society,” prosecutors wrote. “His apology for this conduct rings hollow and should not be accepted by this court.”

According to the complaint and an accompanying court filing:

The boy's parents came to pick him up from daycare and noticed that he was not looking straight ahead and his limbs were rigid.

After taking the boy to the hospital, his mother called Holte, who explained that her son had been abandoned by another child. Holte gave the same account to police, but a doctor examined the boy and said the injuries did not match Holte's claim.

During a second interview with police, Holte admitted to throwing the boy into a park and “shooting him a little harder than usual,” according to the complaint.

She added that she had been providing child care for so long that she had reached “a breaking point in a bad way, in a bad way,” her quotes in the complaint continue.