commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Colorado mother Heather Jensen is now childless. This borderline developmentally disabled 25-year-old woman with an IQ of 76 lost her two sons, William, 2, and Tyler, 4, to hyperthermia when she left them in her SUV with the windows rolled up, the engine running and the heater on in November of 2012, while she dallied with a male companion in his nearby truck. When we last checked in on this case Heather was at trial in a Grand Junction, Colorado courtroom facing charges of criminally negligent homicide, child abuse resulting in death, and false reporting.
In our previous post titled “Colorado Mom Cooks Kids by Mistake While Allegedly Having Sex in Boyfriend’s Truck”, I wrote:
“…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.”
I go on to state that it was entirely possible that this tragedy was simply an honest mistake on the defendant’s part and that she had no idea that she was placing her children in grave danger. In fairness, I do point out that leaving her two young children unattended for a full 90 minutes definitely constituted negligence but that did not mean that she should be convicted of criminally negligent homicide, assuming that she had no idea that she was placing her kids in danger.
Based on the verdict rendered on Friday by the Mesa County jurors who sat patiently through the trial, it appears that their thinking was to some degree similar to mine. In a split verdict, the jury acquitted Heather Jensen of criminally negligent homicide but found her guilty of child abuse resulting in death and false reporting.
The false reporting charge stems from the fact that Ms. Jensen originally told the authorities that the children had only been left along in the SUV for 10 minutes rather than the full 90.
At the trial, the prosecutors portrayed Ms. Jensen as selfish and a liar, stating that she had smoked marijuana and had sex in another vehicle nearby while leaving her children unattended.
Ms. Jensen’s lawyer, Thea Reiff, described her as a lonely widow trying to protect her children and stated that the Palisade woman could not have foreseen the risk of leaving her sons in the vehicle:
“You may hold her responsible for these deaths, but that’s not the standard for criminal negligence,” Reiff said in closing arguments, according to The Daily Sentinel. “The guilt is something that Ms. Jensen will live with for the rest of her life. Don’t compound this tragedy with an unfounded conviction.”
The prosecutor Rich Tuttle fired back that Jensen acted unreasonably and put her boys in a situation that threatened their health and lives, imploring the jurors to think of William and Tyler:
“We’re asking you to value them, to honor their lives and give them justice.”
It’s strange that the slippery term of art “justice” when construed by the prosecution generally seems to translate into extremely lengthy prison sentences. Had Ms. Jensen been convicted of criminally negligent homicide, she would have reportedly been facing up to 24 years of prison time. The fact remains, however, that child abuse resulting in death is still a very serious charge and leaves Ms. Jensen with greater prison exposure than she would be facing if she had been charged and convicted of child abuse negligently resulting in death. Therefore, Ms. Jensen could still be facing a term of imprisonment in the high single or low double digits.
The jury’s decision to acquit Ms. Jensen of the most serious charge may have been due in part to testimony on the part of Mesa County forensic pathologist Rob Kurtzman who stated that the circumstances surrounding the boys’ deaths were “very unusual, extraordinary.” Kurtzman stated that there are only six documented cases of children dying of hyperthermia in cars in the winter in the United States, including the deaths of William and Tyler Jensen. Thus, the jurors may have felt that it would have been a stretch to convict the defendant on the criminally negligent homicide charge given the fact that deaths of this sort in winter are virtually unknown. On the other hand, the jurors clearly thought that Ms. Jensen leaving the kids unattended in the vehicle for 90 minutes constituted child abuse that, in this case, resulted in death.
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On balance, although Ms. Jensen will apparently not be serving anywhere close to the 24 years she was originally facing, she may still draw a dime or thereabouts. Thus, she will not only go through life beating up on herself for her grievous mistake, but she will be reminded of it constantly for the foreseeable future as she treads a weary path through her long days of confinement in a Colorado women’s state prison.
Click here to read our previous post on this tragic case:
Mom Cooks Kids by Mistake While Allegedly Having Sex in Boyfriend’s Truck