Court halts execution of infant’s baby sitter

? A baby sitter who was to have been executed this week for killing an infant won a reprieve Monday from a divided appeals court that ordered a review of whether the boy’s injuries were accidental.

Cathy Lynn Henderson, 50, was to die by injection Wednesday for the death of 3-month-old Brandon Baugh, whose skull was bashed in while he was in her care. His body was buried in a wine cooler box as she fled the state more than 13 years ago.

She would have been the fourth woman to be executed since Texas resumed capital punishment in 1982, and the 12th woman nationally.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals voted 5-3 in Houston, with one judge not participating, to send the case back to the trial court because of new evidence suggesting the baby’s head injuries could have come from a fall. Henderson contends the child died when she accidentally dropped him and his head struck the concrete floor at her home in Pflugerville, an Austin suburb.