A northwest Indiana woman charged with reckless homicide in the death of her 10-year-old son in April was arrested Saturday night by deputies in Michigan.
The Berrien County Sheriff’s Department said it was able to track 48-year-old Jennifer Lee Wilson with a license plate camera and made the arrest shortly after 8 p.m. in New Buffalo, WMAQ reported.
An arrest warrant was issued in Porter County, Indiana, last week for Wilson after autopsy results revealed that Dakota Levi Stevens died from mechanical asphyxia and ruled his death a homicide, as CrimeOnline reported. The autopsy also said that the boy suffered organ and soft tissue damage, liver and lung hemorrhaging, and other injuries.
According to an affidavit supporting the arrest warrant, Dakota had left the house on April 25 after Wilson told him and her other children they could go outside to play after they finished their chores. Dakota said he wouldn’t do any chores and left. Wilson found him and brought him home, but he was still “acting up,” and threw himself on the ground screaming.
Wilson, who was the boy’s foster mother, told police she lay across him and called his case worker, who tried unsuccessfully to calm him. Eventually, Wilson said, Dakota stopped moving and she thought he was faking. When she realized he wasn’t, she said, she began CPR and called for another of her children to call 911.
Dakota was ultimately airlifted to a South Bend children’s hospital, where a CT scan showed brain swelling which could “be consistent with being deprived of oxygen for an extended period of time.
Investigators ultimately viewed several Ring doorbell video clips of the incident. Two 20-second videos show Wilson lying across the boy as he screams, the affidavit says. In a third video, nearly seven minutes long, Wilson is still on top of Dakota, and the boy’s arms are above his head. He is not moving in that video or a fourth video. In a fifth clip, Wilson is on one knee calling the boy’s name. When he doesn’t answer, she calls to one of the other children to call 911.
According to the affidavit, Dakota was 4 feet 10 inches tall and 91 pounds. Wilson was 4 feet 11 inches tall and 340 pounds.
Wilson is being held on a fugitive warrant in Berrien County awaiting extradition to Indiana, according to jail records.
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[Featured image: Dakota Stevens/WMAQ screenshot]
