A 48-year-old woman in Indiana has been sentenced to six years in prison for the reckless homicide of her 10-year-old son. The tragic incident occurred in April of the previous year when Jennifer Lee Wilson, weighing 340 pounds, allegedly sat on her son for several minutes in an attempt to control him after he was misbehaving.
Wilson was arrested shortly after the event, and in January, she was sentenced. She also faces a one-year probation suspension.
On April 25, police responded to a call from a home in Valparaiso, reporting that the boy, Dakota Levi Stevens, was unresponsive and had no pulse. When officers arrived, they observed bruises on his lower neck and chest. Despite efforts to revive him, the child was rushed to a hospital but was later declared dead.
Wilson told police that her son had run away but was found at a neighbor’s house. She brought him back home, but he continued to misbehave and threatened to leave again. According to court documents, Wilson said she was unsure whether she tackled her son or they fell to the ground when she tried to stop him, but she intended to hold him down.
She admitted to sitting on his midsection for about five minutes. After he stopped moving, she believed he was pretending. She reportedly asked, “Are you faking?” before rolling him over and noticing his pale eyelids. Wilson then attempted CPR and called 911.
At the hospital, doctors found that Dakota had suffered severe injuries, including organ damage, liver and lung hemorrhaging, and other trauma. He died shortly afterward.
An autopsy later determined that the cause of death was mechanical asphyxia, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
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