Inset, left to right: (Jennifer Lee Wilson (Berrien County Sheriff’s Office) and Dakota Stevens (WMAQ). Background: The home where Wilson and Stevens lived (WMAQ).
A 49-year-old woman in Indiana will spend several years behind bars for killing her 10-year-old foster son by sitting on the boy’s midsection for several minutes after he had asked a neighbor to call 911 because he was being abused.
Senior Judge Michael Bergerson on Friday ordered Jennifer Lee Wilson to serve the maximum sentence of six years in a state correctional facility for her role in the death of young Dakota Stevens.
Bergerson suspended one year of the sentence, allowing Wilson to spend the final year of her sentence on probation, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported.
Wilson in October formally pleaded guilty to one count of reckless homicide in Dakota’s tragic death.
As Law&Crime previously reported, deputies with the Porter County Sheriff’s Office at about 3:37 p.m. on April 25, 2024, responded to a call regarding an unresponsive 10-year-old at a home in the 200 block of Falcon Way in Valparaiso, which is about 150 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
Once there, first responders found the boy — later identified as Dakota — lying on the ground near the home’s driveway. Someone was providing CPR to the boy, who deputies said was “not conscious, not breathing, and had no pulse.” First responders also noted that the victim had visible bruising to his lower neck and chest.
Deputies took over CPR until emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene and took Dakota to a hospital, where he died two days later. An autopsy determined his manner of death was a homicide, and the cause of death was severe swelling in the brain and being “deprived of oxygen for an extended period of time.” He also suffered organ damage as well as hemorrhaging of the liver and lungs.
At the scene, police made contact with Wilson, whom they described as being “visibly distraught.”
