340lb foster mom is sentenced after crushing boy, 10, to death after sitting on him for five minutes

Jennifer Lee Wilson, 48, pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in the death of Dakota Levi Stevens. The boy died two days after the April 2024 incident that left him crushed under Wilson’s 340-pound frame, per People.

According to court records, Wilson used her body weight to punish the child after he “acted bad.”

Wilson was arrested on July 13 in Berrien County, Michigan. At the time of his death, Dakota had bruises on his neck and chest, as noted in a probable cause affidavit cited by WGN and other outlets.

Wilson told police she lay on Dakota for about five minutes. The boy, who weighed just 91 pounds, eventually stopped moving.

Dakota Levi Stevens, 10, died after his foster parent sat on top of him. Credit: Geiser Funeral Homes

Ring camera footage reviewed by investigators showed Wilson lying on the child’s head and neck while he screamed. In the video, Wilson could be heard saying, “I was laying on him and he was acting bad.”

Only half an hour before emergency responders arrived, Dakota had run to a neighbor’s house and asked her to adopt him, saying his parents hit him in the face, according to the affidavit.

Wilson later retrieved Dakota from the neighbor’s home. She told police he continued acting out and threatened to run away again. As she tried to prevent him from leaving, Wilson said she wasn’t sure if she tackled him or if they fell, but her goal was to “hold him,” Fox5Atlanta reported.

Wilson said she asked Dakota if he was ready to get up. When he didn’t respond, she rolled him over and noticed his eyelids were pale. That’s when she started CPR and called 911.

A 340-pound woman sat on her foster son for several minutes—then assumed he was pretending as he struggled to breathe. Credit: Barrien County Sheriff’s Department

Emergency crews were unable to revive him, and Dakota died at the hospital two days later.

His cause of death was ruled mechanical asphyxia. The medical examiner listed the manner of death as homicide.

Wilson pleaded guilty in October.

According to The Indianapolis Star, the Department of Child Services had placed Dakota with Wilson just a month before his death. Other foster children were living in her home at the time. They have since been removed.

Dakota was remembered in his obituary as a child who “loved the outdoors” and “marched to the beat of his own drum.”