While many entitled people just like to throw their weight around to get their way, a 340-pound foster mom in Indiana took this concept too literally. 10-year-old Dakota Levi Stevens was in 48-year-old Jennifer Lee Wilson’s care when she decided to punish him by sitting on him for “acting bad.” After five minutes of struggling under Wilson’s evidently overweight body, Stevens stopped moving. Thinking that he was “faking,” the foster mom finally checked on him, only to discover that he was no longer breathing. He was pronounced two days later from multiple severe internal injuries.
The plump Indiana foster mom protested to police that her intention was simply to “stop him from leaving.” The 10-year-old reportedly ran off to a neighbor’s home earlier that day, asking if he could be adopted because his parents were “hitting him in the face.” Wilson came and dragged Stevens back to the house before sitting on him as punishment. According to NBC Chicago, she has been sentenced to six years for reckless homicide.
“Did no one tell her not to take “babysitting” literally?” sarcastically remarks a Facebook comment. “Let an elephant sit on her for several minutes!!” chimes in another. “She deserves a year for every pound more she weighed than him,” says a third. “What a piece of s***. Hope she feels the full weight of the law in return,” a fourth ironically notes. “Being in foster care, this child had already suffered tragedy in his young life,” reads a top comment. “Then he encountered this monstrous individual.”
While there are naturally plenty more commenters pointing out the Indiana foster mom’s obese physique through puns and complaints, a grand majority believe six years to be an insufficient punishment. “Only 6 years for murdering a child in your care? That’s crazy,” remarks a Reddit user. “That aint enough for crushing a child to death,” seconds another. “She deserves nothing less than life in prison,” interjects a third.
Hopefully, this tragic story will help childcare institutions to better examine the people they’re choosing to be foster parents and caretakers.