A 10-year-old foster boy was found dead just minutes after asking a neighbor to adopt him and save him from his abusive foster mother.
Indiana authorities say Dakota Levi Stevens ran to his neighbor’s home on April 25 and told the homeowner that his foster parents were beating him and wouldn’t let him talk to his caseworker.
But his foster mother, Jennifer Lee Wilson, 48, found him talking to the neighbor just minutes later and forced Stevens into her car and drove him back to her home, according to court documents obtained by the Kansas City Star.
The 340-pound woman then allegedly proceeded to lay on top of the child for at least seven minutes until he stopped breathing.
There is now a warrant out for Wilson’s arrest, charging her with reckless homicide in the boy’s death.
Dakota Levi Stevens, 10, was pronounced dead at a South Bend hospital two days after his foster mother laid on top of him for about seven minutes.
Dakota was pronounced dead at a South Bend hospital two days later, and an autopsy determined he suffered organ and soft tissue damage, liver and lung hemorrhage, and other injuries. CBS News reports.
The St. Joseph County Coroner’s Office has since ruled Stevens’ death a homicide, reporting that he died of mechanical asphyxiation.
Prosecutors say Wilson and her husband were willing to give up their foster care license because their three other children — former foster children they had adopted — were older and wanted to travel.
But they agreed to take Stevens in because they had provided him with palliative care two years earlier.
Stevens’ biological family He told the Chicago Tribune He and his younger sister were removed from their biological parents’ home due to their parents’ alleged drug use when Dakota was just five years old.
His father died and his mother eventually relinquished her parental rights.
Dakota’s sister was later adopted, while Dakota bounced between family members, foster homes and a mental health care facility before being sent to live with Wilson again in early April.
He has since claimed that the boy had “verbal and physical aggression issues.”
There is now a warrant out for the arrest of the foster mother, Jennifer Lee Wilson, 48, charging her with reckless homicide in the boy’s death.
Wilson told police that Stevens woke up on April 25 agitated after being told not to run around in the house while he was playing with Nerf guns with the other children, according to CBS News.
She said she then told Dakota and the other children that they could go outside to play after finishing their homework, but Stevens refused and stormed off.
At first, she said she planned to give him time to calm down, but when she realized he wasn’t in the backyard, she got in her car to look for him.
Wilson then found him talking to the neighbor, who informed the foster mother that the boy asked her to call the police.
But Wilson later told police that he had told the neighbor to mind her own business, according to court documents.
Relatives have said he and his younger sister were removed from their biological parents’ home because of their parents’ alleged drug use when Dakota was just five years old.
She then reportedly forced Stevens into the car with her and drove him back to her home.
At that point, Wilson says he tried to flee.
She told police she did not remember whether she tackled the boy or whether they both fell to the ground, “however, her intention was to restrain him.”
For the next few minutes, Wilson allegedly held a video conference with Stevens’ social worker, who she said attempted to calm the boy over the phone, even though Stevens “was flailing and moving around.”
Wilson also had a conversation with her husband via the Ring doorbell camera as she “lay on top of (Dakota’s) abdomen” near the driveway, court documents say.
She allegedly told her husband that Stevens was having “one of his days.”
Wilson said Stevens had “verbal and physical aggression issues”
After several minutes, Wilson got off the boy, telling police she became winded from his weight, and noticed Stevens was not moving.
He then told the boy to get up and asked, “Are you pretending?” according to court documents.
“He then spun (Stevens) around and it appeared his eyelids were pale,” court documents say.
“She then began performing CPR and called 911.”
Porter County Sheriff’s Department deputies arrived at the home around 3:37 p.m. for a report of an unconscious 10-year-old boy who was not breathing, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Stevens was then found on the ground near the entrance, where someone was administering CPR to him.
Court documents say Stevens was unconscious, not breathing and had no pulse at the time, and an officer “observed the juvenile had bruising to the lower neck and chest area.”
A police affidavit says Wilson was “visibly distraught” when officers arrived at her home on April 25 and found the boy not breathing and without a pulse on the floor.
A police affidavit states Wilson was “visibly distraught” when officers arrived and told them Stevens had just fled to a neighbor’s house but was still “acting out” and threw himself to the ground, saying he was leaving.
“Wilson stated that she laid on her abdomen and called her caseworker,” the affidavit states, according to the Tribune.
Wilson said he eventually stopped moving and she thought he was faking it.
‘She said she was lying on top of him for about five minutes.’
During the ensuing investigation, police obtained copies of Wilson’s Ring images, which they said began with her already lying on top of the boy, near his head and neck.
Throughout the 20-second video, Stevens was screaming, according to police.
He was still “crying and screaming” in the next 20-second video, and in a third, Wilson could still be seen on top of him, this time near his buttocks.
Stevens’ arms were above his head in that video, and police say he “does not move” throughout the six-minute, 48-second clip.
Meanwhile, Wilson could be heard saying: “I was lying on top of him and he was acting up.”
The St. Joseph County Coroner’s Office has since determined that Stevens died of mechanical asphyxiation.
Stevens was initially transported to Northwest Health Porter for treatment, before being airlifted to South Bend Memorial Hospital.
A Northwest Health doctor later told police he had “severe swelling on the brain, which would be consistent with a lack of oxygen for an extended period of time.”
“He didn’t deserve this. He was better than a lot of people here,” Stevens’ aunt Nicole Rubalcava said at his private funeral, according to the Tribune.
“Even though he fought through it all, this child’s heart really wasn’t made for this world,” she continued.
“He taught me so much, he really did, and I didn’t think a kid could teach you things like that.”
Wilson’s foster license was suspended following the autopsy report and has since been revoked.
Wilson’s foster care license was suspended pending its revocation and any appeal by her after the coroner ruled Stevens’ death a homicide.
She had been licensed as a foster parent since 2017 and was in good standing before Stevens’ death, “having completed the training and education required to achieve and maintain licensure,” Indiana Department of Child Services officials told the Tribune.
But his license was finally revoked on June 30.
Wilson now faces a $20,000 bond from Porter County Prosecutor Gary Germann. he told WGN He believes she will turn herself in in the next few days.
He added that he does not believe there is a risk of flight.
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