MONTELLO - A Montello man faces more than 50 years in prison on charges that he shook his infant son hard enough to cause a fatal brain injury.

Benjamin D. Kamedulski, 27, is scheduled for an initial appearance Monday in Marquette County Circuit Court. He is charged with felony first-degree reckless homicide and felony child abuse in the March death of Ian Kamedulski, 6 months.

Kamedulski is charged as a repeater, which increases the maximum possible penalty by a total of 10 years. The combined charges carry a maximum initial penalty of 53 years in prison.

Kamedulski reportedly told authorities that he shook Ian after the child had fallen down the stairs March 18.

Ian suffered bruises to his forehead, chest and buttocks, similar to finger marks on a child held tightly; he also suffered from signs of severe brain injury consistent with being shaken rather than falling down stairs, according to the complaint.

Emergency responders arrived at Kamedulski's Duck Creek Road home after a 911 call at 10:07 a.m. March 18. They found Ian without a pulse and notbreathing, according to the Marquette County Sheriff's Department.

Ian was transported to a local hospital and then to Children's Hospital in Madison, where he died the next day.

Ian was treated for a broken leg in December. Barbara Knox, University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital child abuse pediatrician, said such an injury could not be accidental in a 4-month-old infant, the complaint stated.

Kamedulski was responsible for taking care of the child March 18, and has been held in the Marquette County Jail since March 19 on a probation violation from a 2004 Outagamie County conviction on a felony charge of delivery of cocaine, according to Sheriff Kim Gaffney.

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