Baby Killer Escapes Life Sentence and Will Get Out of Prison - After He Turns 100

JOLIET, IL — An Elwood man sentenced to life in prison for killing his girlfriend’s baby will have a chance to walk away a free man. But not until after his 100th birthday.

Lee Ponshe’s mandatory life sentence for murdering 18-month-old Halli Burton in April 2009 had been invalidated by the appellate court and his case was sent back to Joliet. On Tuesday, that life sentence was cut down to 75 years in prison.

The mandatory life sentence provision under which Ponshe had been sent to prison was struck down as unconstitutional.

Between the time he has already done in both prison and the Will County jail, Ponshe has served seven years and four months of his 75 year sentence.

Ponshe, 32, was found guilty in December 2012 of murdering young Halli. Ponshe and Halli’s mother, Jessie Evans, met online in January 2009. Within four months, they were engaged to marry and she moved along with her daughter from Downstate White Hall to Elwood so they could all live together.

Halli didn’t last three days there before Ponshe killed her by hitting her in the head.

The night before Halli died, Ponshe and Evans stayed up drinking vodka and lemonade while they watched a movie. The child appeared fine the next day but that evening stopped breathing. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

An autopsy revealed that Halli died of brain trauma. There were bruises to her face, forehead and left ear, and a cut to her lip.

When he was questioned by detectives, Ponshe told them that the night before she died, Halli had been crying for hours and he went in to comfort her about every 15 minutes.

About 3:30 a.m., he said he rubbed Halli’s head but when she would not fall asleep, he “smacked her.”

Ponshe broke down crying and admitted to detectives that he must have hit the child twice, and demonstrated how by rapping his knuckles against a table.

During Ponshe’s trial, prosecutors played a recording of a telephone conversation he had with his father from the jail. He admitted to drinking heavily with Evans and also said he was “on a bunch of f---ing Xanax” and Vicodin.