A woman accused of killing an infant girl at her unlicensed home daycare business in Mississauga was found guilty Monday in Brampton court.

April Luckese was charged with manslaughter in the death of 14-month-old Duy-An Nguyen, who was rushed to hospital from Luckese’s home daycare on Jan. 5, 2011.

“I find that Ms. Luckese ... momentarily lost her patience with Duy-An and assaulted her, causing the skull fracture. There is no other rational explanation for the skull fracture,” Justice Gordon Lemon said in delivering the verdict. He added that even if that was incorrect, Luckese failed to call 911 or seek medical help, failing to fulfill her role of “providing the necessaries of life.”

A police detective testified that Luckese said in an interview with him that Duy-An was “rolling around one minute,” then appeared asleep the next. “I picked her up and she was just lifeless, she was very limp and her head was just everywhere. I’ve taken care of kids for a long time and I’ve never seen a child that lifeless,” Judge Lemon said she’d told the detective.

He acknowledged character evidence in the trial, showing Luckese was “an exemplary daycare provider,” but said that doesn’t mean she didn’t assault the 14-month-old.

Outside the courtroom, Stephen Whitzman, the defence lawyer, told reporters “there may very well be an appeal,” but that he will read the full 88-page ruling before making a decision.

He said the fact that the judge did not give weight to the character evidence is “one of the matters I want to study,” in determining whether to appeal.

“I'm very disappointed and of course Ms. Luckese is quite devastated,” he said. “I had been hoping for an acquittal, based on the way the evidence went in and some of the judge’s comments during submissions.”

Luckese, wearing a light blue shirt, had walked out of the courtroom in tears despite remaining calm during the judgment.

“She was saying to me, ‘Well, what am I going to say to my children?’ and I don’t know what to say to that,” Whitzman said.

She remains on bail until sentencing May 9 and has not been working in a childcare centre since the Jan. 5, 2011 incident.

During the trial, Crown lawyer Amber Lepchuk alleged Luckese inflicted a severe head injury that doctors say killed the little girl, and that she failed to provide the necessities of life when it was clear something was wrong.

The Crown also outlined how Luckese initially told police she tripped while carrying the child — who hit her head on a banister — but then Luckese recanted and claimed she had actually shaken the little girl.

Parents who testified at the trial described how Duy-An wouldn’t wake up from an afternoon nap, and that 911 was called after several people expressed concern that the child wasn’t responding.

Duy-An had been in Luckese’s care only two days when she died.

Duy-An’s mother, An, testified in November that she and her husband Loc were looking for childcare in December 2010 because she had to go back to her receptionist job at an Etobicoke hearing clinic. The Nguyens eventually found Luckese’s business and signed up Duy-An for $35 per day.

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The Nguyens said nothing was out of the ordinary the night before Duy-An’s death and that, other than eczema and a vaginal infection, Duy-An had always been in good health.

Luckese was initially charged with second-degree murder, but that charge was dropped and replaced with an accusation of criminal negligence. The latter charge was upgraded to manslaughter in September 2013.