Benjamin Keith Dowling never spoke a word, never told his parents he loved them, never stood or walked, never dressed himself, never went to prom, never experienced the things most people take for granted.
Standing in a Broward courtroom Wednesday, fighting a hopeless battle against a stream of tears, his mother repeatedly explained why her son, who died at age 35 in 2019, suffered the life he lived: “All because one woman couldn’t control her anger on one day, July 3, 1984.”
That woman, Terry McKirchy, 62, pleaded guilty Wednesday to manslaughter, accepting responsibility for shaking the then-6-month-old Benjamin so violently that he would spend the rest of his life suffering.
“He was strong. He was a fighter. He was loved. He was Benjamin,” said his mother, Rae Dowling, who trusted McKirchy with her baby only to be betrayed by McKirchy’s violent self-described “impatience.”
McKirchy had already been prosecuted, pleaded guilty and served time for aggravated battery in the 1980s. Then six months pregnant with her third child and facing 12 to 17 years in prison, she was sentenced to weekends in jail until giving birth. She was then freed and put on probation for three years.
But when the victim finally succumbed to his injuries 35 years later, prosecutors charged McKirchy with first-degree murder.
Assistant State Attorney Pascal Achille said the decision to reach a plea agreement came after Dowling’s family decided against reliving the ordeal at trial.
“There’s nothing we can do to bring Benjamin back,” his father, Joseph Dowling, said outside the courtroom. “There’s nothing I can do to her that will bring Benjamin back.”
McKirchy’s lawyer, David Fry, read a letter from his client expressing remorse for what she had done. “I fell short of those responsibilities,” she said in the letter. “I am here to accept responsibility.”
Broward Circuit Judge George Odom sat through a 25-minute video montage of photos from Dowling’s life, pictures that spanned from his infancy through his final years. His family dressed him in Halloween costumes and cowboy outfits, polo shirts and shorts and tuxedos and pajamas.
In most of the photos, Dowling’s eyes were wide open as if soaking in the world around him, unable to communicate a word of appreciation. He seemed to smile in some.
His father and mother, brother and sister sat in the gallery and wept.
McKirchy, seated at the defense table in a red Broward jail maximum security inmate jumpsuit, showed no emotion, but occasionally closed her eyes as the soft piano music played.
“You undoubtedly feel robbed of the maximum exposure of life that you would have had,” Odom said before imposing the agreed-upon sentence of three years in prison and 10 years’ probation.
McKirchy voluntarily entered the Broward County Jail on May 29 after having been free on $100,000 bail since shortly after her indictment. She will receive credit for 256 days of time served, some of which was in Texas, where she lives, after the indictment.
At the time of her first plea deal, McKirchy insisted she was innocent, telling reporters that her “conscience is clear.” She said then that she took the deal because wanted to put the case behind her and be with her children.
Rae and Joe Dowling had been married four years when Benjamin was born Jan. 13, 1984. Both Dowlings worked, so they hired McKirchy, then 22, to babysit him at her home.
The Dowlings said in a 2021 statement that Benjamin endured several surgeries in his life, including having metal rods placed along his spine. He got nourishment through a feeding tube and attended rehab and special schools. The Dowlings had two more children and would take Benjamin to their games and performances. The family moved to Florida’s Gulf Coast in the late 1990s. He died at their home on Sept. 16, 2019.
Information from the Associated Press and South Florida Sun Sentinel archives was used in this article.
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