'I was laying on him': Foster parent charged with reckless homicide in death of 10-year-old boy

A Northern Indiana foster parent has been charged with reckless homicide for the death of 10-year-old Dakota Levi Stevens, the Porter County Sheriff's Office announced Friday.

Jennifer Wilson, 48, of Valparaiso was arrested the following day in Berrien County, Michigan, just north of the Indiana border, authorities said. Reckless homicide, a level 5 felony, is punishable by up to six years in prison.

Dakota was rushed to the hospital on April 25 after an argument with Wilson, who the Department of Child Services placed with Wilson about a month earlier. Wilson told police that Dakota ran away earlier that day, and she brought the boy home after finding him at a neighbor's house. After they got home, Dakota was "acting up" and threw himself to the ground outside Wilson's house, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Wilson said she was lying on the boy's body to keep him under control while she called his caseworker. Dakota screamed and eventually stopped moving. At first, Wilson told police, she thought the boy was faking, but when she rolled him over his eyelids were pale. Wilson told investigators she was on top of the boy for about five minutes.

Dakota weighed 91 pounds. Wilson weighed 340 pounds.

The death of Dakota Levi Stevens: Police investigating death of boy placed in foster care by Department of Child Services

Wilson looked "visibly distraught" when police arrived at her house in the 200 block of Falcon Way in Valparaiso, according to the affidavit. The boy, who had spent the last five years of his life moving through different foster homes, was not breathing and had no pulse.

Dakota was airlifted from Porter Memorial Hospital to South Bend, where he was taken off life support two days later. Doctors found swelling in the boy's brain ― consistent with oxygen deprivation for an extended period of time. He was pronounced dead two days later.

The St. Joseph County Coroner's Office later ruled the boy's death as a homicide . Dakota died from mechanical asphyxia , a kind of asphyxiation in which an object or physical force stops a person from breathing.

A 20-second clip from Ring video cameras showed Wilson lying across Dakota's neck and head area as the boy screamed, the affidavit says. Another 20-second video shows Dakota still screaming while Wilson was on top of him, her right arm and elbow planted on the ground.

A third video shows Wilson still on top of Dakota near his buttocks area, the affidavit says. The boy, whose arms were above his head, was no longer moving. A fourth video shows the two still in the same position, with Dakota still not moving.

Dakota Levi Stevens: 10-year-old boy in Department of Child Services foster care died of homicide, coroner says

A fifth video shows Wilson on her knee facing Dakota who was facedown on the ground.

"Dakota!" Wilson screamed several times.

She later asked one of her other kids to call 911.

"I was laying on him and he was acting bad," Wilson can be heard saying.

Wilson had three other children in her house; all were adopted. Brian Heinemann, a spokesman for DCS, said last month that Wilson's license is on hold pending revocation, and no other children are currently in her home.

Dakota was at least the second child involved with DCS to have died in April, which Gov. Eric Holcomb had designated as Child Abuse Prevention Month . His death has left questions among family members who said they have tried unsuccessfully for several years to gain custody of the boy to remove him from the foster care system. The case also raises concerns about the ability of DCS to adequately protect children who are either in the agency's care or in abusive family situations.

Dakota's parents lost custody of him and his younger sister in 2018, after DCS concluded they were unable to care for the children, family members told IndyStar.

Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com .

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 'I was laying on him': Foster parent charged with reckless homicide in death of 10-year-old boy