It was late April when a woman laid across her 10-year-old foster son on her Indiana front lawn until he died. As of this week, she has been released from prison and is expected to attend a hearing later this month.
According to the Post-Tribune , 48-year-old Jennifer Lee Wilson is expected to attend the hearing on July 31. An affidavit cited by CBS News said that the 4’11 woman weighed 340 pounds, while her 4’10 foster child Dakota Levi Stevens weighed just 90 pounds.
A probable cause affidavit for a warrant against Wilson was issued this month in Porter County Superior Court. Porter County Sheriff's Detective Dan Alonzo reported that the incident occurred in Valparaiso on April 25.
Per the affidavit cited by CBS, Stevens came into the care of Wilson and her husband earlier in April through Lake County, Indiana Child Protective Services. The couple – who have three other children who they fostered and then adopted – initially declined to take him in. However, they eventually agreed since they had provided respite care for him two years prior.
“Foster care is meant to provide safe, temporary living arrangements and support services for children who have been removed from their families due to maltreatment, lack of safety or inadequate care,” according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation . As of 2021, three in every 1,000 children in the U.S. were in foster care.
Although foster care is intended to provide safe environments, over a third of foster children and youth experience more than two placements each year, said the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This frequent moving is “disruptive, stressful and often traumatizing,” it explained.
This January, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ annual child maltreatment report found that 558,899 out of the more than 3 million children who were the subject of a child protective services response in fiscal year 2022 were determined to be victims of maltreatment.
While that figure marks “the lowest number of children identified as victims of maltreatment in the last five years,” the national estimated number and rate of fatalities have increased during the past five years. In 2022, an estimated 1,990 children died from abuse and neglect, compared to an estimated 1,930 children whose deaths were determined as due to maltreatment the previous year.
Wilson told police that her foster son, Stevens, had verbal and physical aggression issues. She said that Stevens woke up agitated on the day that he died and had been told not to run in the house while playing with Nerf guns with one of her other children, per the affidavit. It added that Wilson also told Stevens he was not allowed to play outside because he had not done his chores.
At that point, Stevens walked out of their home. Wilson got in her car to find him and spotted him speaking to a neighbor.
“The neighbor told Wilson the boy had asked her to call the police – but Wilson told police she told the woman to mind her own business, the affidavit said,” and Stevens claimed that Wilson hit him, but the neighbor did not see signs of injury according to CBS News. “Wilson said Dakota eventually [got] in the car, but refused to get out when they got home – and screamed at her and told her he was leaving, the affidavit said.”
Stevens threw himself to the ground, said the document, and then Wilson laid on his midsection and called his caseworker. She said she didn’t know if she tackled him or if they fell to the ground together.
“Wilson said she was lying across the boy’s body, and said she called his caseworker on Facetime, the affidavit said,” CBS News continued. “She said the caseworker tried to calm Dakota down over the phone, but he kept flailing and moving around, the affidavit said.”
As time went on, the boy got out of breath. In addition to calling the caseworker, Wilson also called her husband via Ring and said the boy having “one of his days.”
“This little guy was a Master Bargainer who believed strongly in his own opinions even if they were wrong. (Once again, if you know, you know),” said the child’s obituary . It also said he loved the outdoors, Minecraft, sharks, Legos, board games, reading and that he was “extremely artistic” and “brilliant” at schoolwork. Stevens is survived by his sister, Nora Faye.
When Wilson asked Stevens if he was ready to get up and he didn’t respond, she thought he was pretending. Then, she rolled him over to see pale eyelids, began CPR and dialed 911. A neighbor also came to help.
By the time emergency responders arrived on the scene, Stevens was not breathing and he had no pulse. An officer also found the boy had bruising on his lower neck and chest.
“Police tried to resuscitate the boy, and he was taken to Northwest Health Porter for further treatment, the affidavit said,” per CBS. He was airlifted to a children’s hospital in South Bend after a CT scan revealed severe brain swelling that would result from oxygen deprivation for an extended time, said the affidavit.
Several Ring doorbell cameras caught footage of the incident, according to Detective Alonzo. He wrote two showed Wilson lying across Dakota’s body near his neck and head while he screamed.
“In two later clips, which lasted nearly seven minutes, Wilson was still on top of Dakota – but he was not moving, the affidavit said,” CBS reported. A fifth and final video shows Wilson screaming Stevens’ name while she is seen facing him on one knee.
Two days after the incident, the South Bend Memorial Hospital reported to sheriff’s police that Stevens had died. His autopsy revealed that he had suffered organ and soft tissue damage, liver and lung hemorrhaging, and other injuries, per the affidavit.
Stevens’ cause of death was determined to be mechanical asphyxia, and the manner a homicide. Wilson has been charged with reckless homicide and was apprehended last Saturday in Michigan by the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office .
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