by Patrick H. Moore
One salient fact that is often overlooked in criminal cases is the fact that a great many defendants facing serious criminal charges were not particularly blessed when the brains were handed out. In fact, I strongly suspect that if the 2 million plus Americans doing time were all given the standard cognitive tests, the average prisoner’s performance level would be somewhat lower than the overall societal average.
Does that mean that these less “intelligent” individuals should be shown leniency because based on their lack of mental acumen, they may have been unaware, or not completely aware, that they were breaking the law when they committed their crimes? Possibly. But before we decide, let’s examine the peculiar case of Heather Jensen. Will C. Holden of Fox 31 Denver has the story:
A trial began this week for a Palisade mom whose kids died from overheating when they were left in her SUV while she allegedly met a man to have sex.
Opening statements began Wednesday, according to KKCO, with prosecutors portraying Heather Jensen as a selfish liar who issued her two children a death sentence when she locked them in her vehicle while she went off to have sex.
Jensen’s defense attorneys, on the other hand, painted a very different picture of the 25-year-old Colorado woman, characterizing their client as a lonely, troubled widow who was trying to protect her kids by leaving the heat on to keep them warm. Furthermore, Jensen’s lawyers pointed out that her IQ is only 76, which is borderline developmentally disabled. The lawyers blamed any poor choices the grieving mother may have made not only on her lack of intelligence, but on her relative youth and the death of her husband, who died in a car wreck two months before the event in question..
Jensen sobbed loudly in the courtroom Wednesday as the opening statements were read.
Jensen is being charged with child abuse resulting in death, false reporting, and — the most serious charge — criminally negligent homicide, which is defined as “a gross deviation from the standard of care expected of a reasonable person that manifests in a failure to protect others from risk making one criminally liable as a result of their conduct.”
The charges resulted from the death of Jensen’s two sons, Tyler, 4, and William, 2. The two young boys died from complications related to hypothermia and overheating on Nov. 27, 2013, after sitting by themselves in their mother’s SUV, which she left running, for 90 minutes in a parking lot near the Powederhorn Ski Resort.
The arrest affidavit states that Jensen locked her children in the vehicle for 90 minutes while she had sex with a man in a truck parked nearby.
Jensen’s credibility is damaged by the fact that in the months prior to her fatal choice to leave her two children in the running vehicle, she failed three different court-ordered drug tests, testing positive for THC, the primary intoxicant in marijuana. In addition, Ms. Jensen — who had received an 18-month deferred judgment after pleading guilty to a third-degree assault charge against her late husband – reportedly violated her parole when she fled to Florida.
If Ms. Jensen had managed to keep the cannabis out of her system while meeting the other terms of her probation, the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office had agreed that upon completing her probation, her assault conviction would have been erased.
Jensen was arrested in January at her mother’s home in North Fort Myers, Fla.
Jensen had submitted a hand-written letter to a Mesa County judge on Dec. 11, according to the Sentinel in which she asked to be released from the terms of her probation that stipulated she had to remain in Colorado.
“I believe it would be a great opportunity for me to start my life over again in Florida, and being surrounded by all my family who loves me to help me get through the losses I’ve had in this past month,” Jensen wrote. “And I would greatly appreciate it if you will let me move on with my life in Florida.”
The court, however, reportedly did not issue an approval of Jensen’s request to leave, but she left anyway traveling to Florida on her own accord.
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On Nov. 27th, the night of the accident, after leaving her friend’s truck and discovering two-year old William was not breathing and had no pulse, Jensen called 911 from the car park close to the Powderhorn Mountain ski resort in Grand Junction, Colorado.
She also told dispatchers that four-year-old Tyler was barely breathing.
William died at the scene from hyperthermia, which is defined as an extreme overheating in the body. Despite being airlifted to Aurora’s children’s hospital, Tyler passed away a week later.
When speaking to the investigators, Ms. Jensen initially told deputies that she left her sons in the car for 10 minutes to talk to a friend but later admitted that it had been much longer.
According to law enforcement, she actually sat in the man’s truck for about 90 minutes.
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So let’s review… A woman on probation for assaulting her now deceased husband, leaves her two young boys in her vehicle with the engine running and the heat on while she spends 90 minutes with a man in his truck nearby – allegedly to have sex. According to the Daily Sentinel, Ms. Jensen had let the boys play in the snow on November 27th before putting them back in her Toyota 4Runner and turning the engine on.
Based on this, and given Ms. Jensen’s very low IQ, it seems probable that she merely intended to warm her boys up while she dallied with her boyfriend in his truck. And had she dallied for a mere 10 or 15 minutes, her boys would probably have been fine. But instead, she stayed with the man for around 90 minutes, long enough for her poor children to be more-or-less literally cooked.
One wonders if – while involved with her boyfriend – Ms. Jensen forgot that she had left the heat on. Alternatively, one wonders if, given her lack of mental acuity, she ever grasped the fact that what she was doing was dangerous. Keep in mind, there is apparently no evidence that this now childless mother had ever neglected, mistreated or abused her children.
Therefore, it is entirely possible that this tragedy was simply an honest mistake on Ms. Jensen’s part; i.e., she had no idea that she was placing her children in grave danger. This, of course, in no way justifies her decision to leave the kids unattended for a full 90 minutes, which is much too long a period to leave a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old alone in a vehicle.
Thus, notwithstanding her mental deficiency, I think it’s fair to say that Ms. Jensen was definitely negligent in choosing to enjoy the company of her boyfriend for 90 minutes at the expense of her two young children. This does not mean, however, that she is guilty of a criminally negligent homicide, assuming that she had no idea that she was placing her kids in danger.
Should she have known? Of course she should have. Did she know? Probably not. How can we know if she knew that what she was doing was risking their lives? We probably cannot know for sure.
It is reported that Ms. Jensen was offered a 12 to 24 year plea deal which she apparently turned down prior to going to trial.