Docs: Foster mom charged in boy’s death trying to get out of no-contact order, use bail for attorney fees

PORTER COUNTY, Ind. — The foster mom accused of sitting on 10-year-old Dakota Levi Stevens, which later killed him, is trying to get her no-contact order lifted.

Court documents show Jennifer Wilson and her defense team are also trying to free up $10,000 of her $20,000 ordered bond to pay her attorney “so she can afford representation and to cover the cost of case expenses (which would include any potential expert costs).”

Of the $10,000, half would be placed in Baldwin, Perry and Wiley’s Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA) and will remain there until needed, according to the filing.

Her husband paid her bond on July 17 after she was taken into custody in New Buffalo, Michigan on July 14, a document states.

Wilson and her defense team also filed a motion to vacate her non-contact order regarding her two young dependents. The Northwest Indiana Times reported that she is challenging prosecutors to prove the legal necessity for the protective order.

Wilson’s license to operate a foster home was revoked on June 30, according to DCS.

All of this stems after she was charged with the reckless homicide of Dakota Levi Stevens, 10, who was placed into her foster home.

Wilson is accused of sitting on Stevens for several minutes in the front yard of her residence on the afternoon of April 25. Police and prosecutors have camera footage of the alleged incident from neighbors and described the incident in court documents .

Stevens, who loved digging for bugs and the outdoors, died two days later on the morning of April 27. His death was ruled a homicide by mechanical asphyxia.

A neighbor told police Stevens ran to her house asking her to adopt him 30 minutes prior to the incident. Documents allege he was hit in the face and said his foster parents didn’t let him call his case worker.

A hearing for her motion to terminate the no-contact order is scheduled for Sept. 4. A jury trial is scheduled for March 3 with other hearings scheduled for Sept. 24, Oct. 29 and Dec. 3.

A request for cameras in the courtroom was denied, according to court records.

WGN News has reached out to the firm representing her in Indianapolis and DCS for a statement.

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