A 48-year-old foster mother was sentenced Friday to 6 years in prison for negligent homicide. Jennifer Wilson pleaded guilty to causing the death of 10-year-old Dakota Stevens on April 25, 2024 in Valparaiso, Indiana. The accused sat on the child for five minutes as punishment, leading to his death by asphyxiation, explains CBS News.
The forty-year-old explained to investigators that she was trying to prevent the child from leaving. “She does not know if she tackled Dakota or if they fell to the ground, but her intention was to hold him,” it is explained in court documents. At the time of the tragedy, Dakota was 147 centimeters tall and weighed 41 kilos. Her host mother is 150 centimeters tall and weighs 154 kilos.
While she was choking her victim, Jennifer Wilson allegedly asked him: “Are you pretending?” Not getting a response, the forty-year-old ended up withdrawing, before realizing that Dakota was unconscious. She called emergency services and tried to resuscitate the child, to no avail. The young boy was airlifted to hospital, where he died two days later. According to the autopsy report, death was due to mechanical asphyxia and the CT scan revealed severe swelling of the brain due to lack of oxygen.
-According to a neighbor, Dakota had rushed home about thirty minutes before the tragedy. He allegedly told her of his desire to be adopted, claiming that his foster family regularly hit him in the face. The resident, however, assures that she has never noticed any traces of abuse on the body of her little neighbor. Jennifer Wilson came to pick up the boy moments later. Once back in his foster home, Dakota wanted to run away again, and the forty-year-old sat on him, causing his death.
