Kale admitted he was napping between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on July 5, 2003, while Trinity Kale - strapped into a baby walker - baked and burned in the sun.

The 39-year-old father, living in a rented room on 11th Avenue at the time, was initially charged with first-degree felony murder, based on a medical examiner's opinion that the child died from head trauma, which included a skull fracture.

But prosecutors - concerned the defense might convince a jury the child died from heat stroke - allowed Kale to plead guilty to a lesser count of child-abuse homicide, a third-degree felony.

Kale faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced April 6 by 3rd District Judge Stephen Henriod.

Defense attorney Rudy Bautista said the plea represents "what Mr. Kale is actually responsible for doing. He was negligent by leaving the child outside for too long."

Bautista said that before Kale began his nap, he put the baby on a shaded portion of the balcony, under an umbrella with a water bottle.

"But the sun moved," said Bautista, noting that a large sunburn on the child's right thigh supports the heat-stroke scenario.

Bautista said that a couple of weeks prior to the baby's death, Kale had asked the child's mother to leave the home because she was suffering from mental illness and not taking her medications.

That left the father alone to care for the child.

"Caring for a baby is very exhausting," Bautista said. "He chose to take a nap without appreciating the potential danger."

Although Kale claims he napped for only a couple of hours, prosecutors say neighbors heard the child crying for up to five hours that day.

As for the baby's skull fracture, Bautista called it "minor" and said it occurred either at the time of death or shortly after. He said it "had nothing to do with baby's death."

Bautista said the fracture could have occurred while Kale was giving the child CPR, or while during a frantic drive to the hospital with the child in his arms.

"He was running stop signs and speeding [and could have banged the baby's head on the steering wheel]," Bautista said.

Also, according to the charges, Kale admitted to violently shaking the baby after waking and discovering she was not breathing.

Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Joy Natale said her office was "satisfied" with the resolution, given that the medical evidence was open to different interpretations, that the case had been going for some time and that the baby's mother is siding with the defendant's version of events.

Natale said the case has dragged on for nearly four years because Kale had fired two attorneys and because of a petition filed with the Utah Court of Appeals.

shunt@sltrib.com