The Daily Populous Wednesday March 12nd, 2025 morning edition
Authored by foxnews.com and submitted by NoCopperDistrict

A 10-year-old Indiana boy was crushed to death after his foster mother, who weighed 340 pounds, allegedly sat on him for several minutes because he was "acting bad."

Jennifer Lee Wilson, 48, was sentenced in January to six years in prison, with one year suspended to be served on probation, according to WMAQ. She was charged with reckless homicide in the death of Dakota Levi Stevens.

On April 25, police were called to a home in Valparaiso, Indiana, because the boy was not breathing and turned out to have no pulse, CBS News reported. An officer found bruising on the child's lower neck and chest. Officers attempted to resuscitate the boy, but he was transported to a hospital where he later died.

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Wilson told police that the boy had just run away from home, and she had found him at a neighbor's house and brought him back home. She said he was still "acting bad" and threw himself on the ground, telling her that he was leaving.

According to a court filing, Wilson told police that "when she attempted to stop him from leaving, she does not know if she tackled Dakota or they fell to the ground however her intention was to hold him."

She said she sat on his midsection for about five minutes. He eventually stopped moving, but she believed he was faking.

"Are you faking?" she asked before she rolled him over and noticed his eyelids were pale. Wilson then began performing CPR and called 911.

On April 27, South Bend Memorial Hospital reported that Dakota had died. He suffered organ and soft tissue damage, liver and lung hemorrhaging and other injuries.

An autopsy revealed the cause of death as mechanical asphyxia and the manner of death as homicide.

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The neighbor told officers that Dakota ran to her house before the medical emergency and asked her to adopt him because his parents hit him in the face. The neighbor said she did not observe any signs of injury to the boy.

Wilson then came to take her son back, the neighbor said.

Dakota was 4'10" and 91 pounds, while Wilson was listed at 4'11" and 340 pounds.

Ear_Enthusiast on March 11st, 2025 at 10:57 UTC »

My mom used to do this to me. If I resisted while she spanked me, she'd pin me down by sitting on me and then she'd spank me. So when she hit me I'd scream and because there was a full grown woman sitting on me I couldn't catch my breath, so I'd struggle, and she'd hit me more for struggling, and I'd scream more and lose my breath more. Eventually I would be fighting for my life or at least to get enough air to remain conscious. I'm lucky as fuck she didn't weigh 340. Now I have PTSD and full blown anxiety attacks because of her. It's wonderful when she criticizes my parenting or word gets back to me that she's been shit talking about me and my wife as parents, to other people.

bbutter55 on March 11st, 2025 at 05:49 UTC »

Being in foster care, this child had already suffered tragedy in his young life. Then he encountered this monstrous individual.

ex_oh_ex_oh on March 11st, 2025 at 05:18 UTC »

It's sad that this isn't the first time I've heard of something like this happening and probably won't be the last. Poor kid, the world is an ugly place.