Dakota Levi Stevens’ former foster mother was charged Friday with reckless homicide in the death of the 10-year-old in late April, authorities said.
According to court documents, Jennifer Lee Wilson “laid on his midsection” for several minutes at her Porter County home because Dakota was “acting up.” She contacted the boy’s caseworker and her husband while she laid on the child until he stopped breathing, the documents said.
A warrant has been issued for Wilson, 48, of the 200 block of Falcon Way in Liberty Township. She was not in custody as of Friday afternoon, officials said. Reckless homicide is a Level 5 felony.
Dakota died on April 27 at South Bend Memorial Hospital from mechanical asphyxiation, according to the St. Joseph County Coroner’s Office, which ruled his death a homicide.
Wilson, according to charging documents filed in Porter Superior Court, weighed 340 pounds, and Dakota weighed 91 pounds.
Dakota was placed in Wilson’s care on April 5 by Lake County Child Protective Services, according to court documents. While Wilson and her husband were ready to relinquish their foster license because her three other children, former foster children whom they had adopted, were older and they wanted to travel, they agreed to take in Dakota because they had provided respite care for him two years ago.
Dakota and a younger sister were removed from their biological parents’ home because of the parents’ reported drug use when Dakota was 5, family members have said. Their father died and their mother eventually relinquished parental rights. His sister was later adopted.
Dakota bounced between family members, foster homes and a mental health facility, those close to him have said.
Deputies from the Porter County Sheriff’s Department were called to Wilson’s home around 3:37 p.m. on April 25 for a report of an unconscious 10-year-old who wasn’t breathing. Dakota was on the ground near the driveway when police arrived and someone was administering CPR.
The boy was not conscious, not breathing and had no pulse when police arrived, documents said. An officer “observed that the juvenile had bruising his lower neck and chest area.”
Police said Wilson was “visibly distraught” and told officers Dakota had just run away. She located him at a neighbor’s house and brought him back home but Dakota was still “acting up” and threw himself on the ground and said he was leaving.
“Wilson stated that she laid on his midsection and called his caseworker,” documents state. “Wilson stated that he eventually stopped moving and she thought he was faking. She advised that she laid on him for approximately five minutes.”
Wilson told police Dakota “had verbal and physical aggression issues,” and that was the first time he ran away, after an argument about doing his chores before he went outside to play. After Dakota left and Wilson found him and brought him home, he refused to get out of the car and screamed at her, telling her he was leaving, documents said.
“Wilson stated that when she attempted to stop him from leaving, she does not know if she tackled D.S. or they fell to the ground however her intention was to hold him,” documents said. Wilson was lying across Dakota’s body.
During that time, Wilson had a video call with Dakota’s caseworker, who tried to calm the boy down over the phone, though Dakota would “flail and move around.” Wilson also had a conversation with her husband through the Ring camera at their home and told him Dakota was having “one of his days,” documents state.
She told Dakota to get up and asked, “Are you faking?”
“She then rolled D.S. over and it appeared his eyelids were pale,” documents said. “She then began CPR and called 911.”
Police received copies of the Ring videos from the incident and said the first one began with Wilson already lying across Dakota, near his head and neck. “D.S. is screaming during the entire 20 second video,” documents said
Dakota “is still crying and screaming” in the second 20-second video. Wilson was still on top of Dakota in the third video, near his buttocks, and his arms were above his head “and he does not move” for the entire 6-minute, 48-second video.
Subsequent videos, documents state, do not show Dakota moving. In the final video, Wilson screams Dakota’s name and asks her child to call 911. Wilson, according to charging documents, can be heard saying, “I was laying on him and he was acting bad.”
Mourners at a private funeral held May 6 at Geisen Funeral Home in Crown Point said Dakota, who was affectionately called “Levi” by his family, was an extraordinary child despite the trauma he had experienced.
“He didn’t deserve this. He was better than a lot of people here,” Dakota’s aunt, Nicole Rubalcava, who also works at Geisen, said during his funeral. “Even if he battled stuff, this kid’s heart truly was not made for this world. He taught me so much, he truly did, and I didn’t think a kid could teach you stuff like that.”
The Eagle Ridge subdivision, where Dakota lived with Wilson at the time of his death, held a candlelight vigil to remember the boy the same night as his funeral.
“There are never good words at moments like this,” David Stovall, pastor at The Rock Church in Hobart and a neighbor in the subdivision, before he began a brief invocation during the vigil.
“Lord, you know the circumstances. You know the situation,” he said then. “We ask that you would just give peace, Lord, because we don’t have the answers.”
Dakota was initially transported to Northwest Health-Porter on April 25 before being airlifted to South Bend Memorial Hospital. A doctor at Northwest Health told police that Dakota had “severe swelling in his brain which would be consistent with being deprived of oxygen for an extended period of time,” according to charging documents.
After the St. Joseph County Coroner’s Office ruled Dakota’s death a homicide in early June, Wilson’s foster care license was placed on hold while the license was pending revocation and pending any appeal from Wilson, according to an email from Brian Heinemann, a spokesman with the Indiana Department of Child Services.
“The appeal process has expired, and the license was revoked June 30, 2024,” he said in the email, declining further comment because of the active criminal case and the confidential nature of DCS records.
Officials with the office have said that Wilson had been licensed since 2017 and was in good standing before Dakota’s death, “having completed the required training and education required to achieve and maintain licensure.” She did not have other foster children in the home at the time.
Wilson’s bond has been set at $20,000, according to online court records, and her case has been assigned to Porter Superior Court Judge Mary DeBoer.
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
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