Jurors trying the case of caretaker Keyun Newble, 26, charged with killing McCann at an eastern Illinois group home, heard about the brutal injuries the 42-year-old suffered. He had 13 broken ribs and lungs filled with fluid, part of what a doctor called "massive internal injuries" suffered as apparent punishment for stealing cookies.
Newble was charged with murder, which would have sent him to prison for at least 20 years. But the judge allowed the option of a lesser charge, involuntary manslaughter, and the jurors took it, making him eligible for a sentence as short as three years.
For advocates of the disabled, the April 27 verdict was insulting. McCann's family reacted with confusion. Both are trying to make sense of the verdict's message just as officials are trying to better safeguard the lives of disabled people who need care from the state.
A second employee of the group home, 23-year-old Marquis Harmon, faces his own murder trial in the McCann case. Harmon testified against Newble and his attorney hopes prosecutors offer him a deal that reduces the charges.
That the first defendant was found guilty of anything less than murder is an outrage, said Tony Paulauski, executive director of The Arc of Illinois, an advocacy group for the disabled.
"I think it once again shows how our society devalues people with disabilities," he said. "The aggressive actions of that employee that resulted in 13 broken ribs? That's far beyond (manslaughter)."
McCann's sister, Kathy Slovick, sat through the trial and doesn't believe jurors in any way discounted her brother. But she believes prosecutors presented more than enough evidence to support the murder charge.
"Their decision was confusing to me and to members of my family," said the 54-year-old from the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn.
Jurors did not speak to the media after rendering their verdict in Charleston.
Gov. Pat Quinn has made it a priority to close institutions for disabled people like McCann and transfer them into situations closer to their families, such as in group homes. But the effort has drawn criticism from unions and some affected families.
State legislation in the wake of McCann's death, called Paul's Law, led to changes that could broadly impact the thousands of people who now live in group homes and similar settings in Illinois. That population currently is 9,500 people, according to the state Department of Human Services.
The new law requires background checks of group home employees and a hard look by state regulators at any facility where an abuse claim has been filed. The law also requires a state repository of group home records readily accessible to residents' families.
The network of homes where McCann lived, run by the private Graywood Foundation, lost its license and shut down.
McCann's death was the second at a Graywood home in three years. Reporting by The Associated Press showed that state regulators knew about abuse at Graywood homes before McCann's death, but never shared it with residents' families.
A 2009 memo written by a state investigator called the conditions at the homes "totally unacceptable."
McCann was like a sweet child, his sister said. He loved music, stopping to listen as he and his family walked through businesses if he heard a classical piece he liked. He lived in Charleston, more than three hours from his family in the Chicago suburbs, because they couldn't find another place for him, Slovick said.
"At the time my brother was accepted into Charleston he had been waiting for months because the options were so limited," Slovick said. "There should have been more options."
McCann's aging parents saw him about once a month, staying in Charleston for several days at a time and taking him out to eat and to movies while they were in town. The distance, Paulauski said, is part of the problem with monitoring the care of group-home residents. Family that far away can't immediately tell if something is wrong.
Quinn's plan, Paulauski says, would allow more disabled people to live closer to their families.
Slovick and her family still have a civil lawsuit pending against Graywood.
McCann's sister hugged and cried with Newble's family after the trial. While Paulaski, the advocate, decried the more lenient verdict for making the disabled seem like "second-class citizens," Slovick saw it as a more optimistic outcome.
"My brother's life was lost and this man's life was going to be lost as well if he was going to be convicted of first-degree murder," Slovick said. "And I realized that it (would have been) an ultimate tragedy all the way around."
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