Ten-year-old Dakota Levi Stevens died after being crushed by his foster mother, 48-year-old Jennifer Lee Wilson, in Berrien County, Michigan. Dakota had only been in her care for a month.
Reports say he misbehaved, and Wilson pressed her 340-pound body onto him for about five minutes, believing he was faking. Despite 911 being called and emergency responders arriving, Dakota suffered catastrophic internal injuries and passed away on April 25, 2024.
Wilson pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and was sentenced in January 2025 to six years in prison, with one year suspended. Dakota was remembered as a boy who loved the outdoors and “marched to the beat of his own drum.”