Two charged for death and malnourishment of a Utah infant
Dec 13, 2024, 9:09 PM | Updated: 10:25 pm
FERRON, Emery County — Two people are being charged for the death of a 9-month-old boy who died in Utah in 2023.
Jesica Lynn Stoops, 35, and Timothy James Soots, 38, were charged by Utah’s 7th Judicial District for first-degree felony child abuse homicide on Friday, according to court documents.
Court documents stated that the Emery County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a 9-month-old child who was not breathing after having a “reaction to some cream” at a home in Ferron, Utah.
One of the deputies who arrived at the home knocked on the door, which Stoops’s mother answered and told the deputy that the baby was in the front room. The deputy reported finding Stoops “leaning over the baby trying to get him to respond.”
According to court documents, the deputy began giving the baby one-handed, two-finger chest compressions and asked Stoops to provide rescue breaths to the child. EMTs arrived at the home and began giving rescue breaths to the boy with a bag valve mask as the deputy continued the compressions.
Court documents stated that another deputy and a sergeant arrived at the house and took turns with the chest compressions until the EMTs declared the boy dead at approximately 2 p.m.
The Emery County Sheriff’s deputies and sergeant reported that the boy looked “emaciated” as they could see “his back done and ribs … through his skin.” They also reported finding “red spots on his head.”
According to court documents, Stoops told a deputy that a doctor last saw the child on Jan. 1, 2023, because “the baby was underweight, and no one could figure out why.”
The Emery County sergeant reported seeing “several mattresses were on the floor with blankets, like someone was using the living room as a bedroom.” They also found “copious amounts of essential-type oils all over the living room.”
In the court documents, the Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office reported that the boy “showed malnutrition, dehydration and sepsis resulting in the baby’s death.”
Charges list Stoops and Soots residing in Winnsboro, Texas. Previous records show that Stoops used to live in Layton in 2012.
