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OGDEN — An Ogden woman who pleaded guilty smothering to death one of her infant, twin sons in a sleeping bag was sentenced to prison Friday.
Jewell Hendricks was ordered to serve 15 years to life in prison for murder, a first-degree felony, by 2nd District Judge Michael DiReda, who said the case was full of "profound sorrow."
"The devastation you have caused your family, yourself and your surviving child, Daniel ... It's incomprehensible," DiReda said.
Hendricks' attorney, Ryan Bushell said his client is "25 going on 14" mentally and was struggling with post- partum depression and the strain of raising infants sons when she made the decision in January 2010 to put her 2- month-old son, Robert, in a sleeping bag and smother him.
Hendricks' attorney, Ryan Bushell said his client is "25 going on 14" mentally and was struggling with post-partum depression and the strain of raising infants sons.
"Two colicky babies with lack of sleep, lack of help ... One night it all came down to, I can't do this and something inside of her snapped," Bushell said. "She made a decision that will haunt her for the rest of her life. ... She did it in a desperate move to get him to stop crying."
Bushell and a number of Hendricks' family members told the judge that she is not a heartless killer, but someone who is attentive and sweet.
"She's not cold-hearted," Philip Hendricks, the woman's husband and father of the twins said. "She inspired people. She inspired me to graduate high school. ... Without her, I wouldn't be here."
Prosecutor Dean Saunders said he understands Hendricks was struggling, but that didn't change the fact that she killed a young child.
"We realize she had some mental health issues, but that doesn't excuse what she did," Saunders told the judge. "This was a person who was functioning, who knew right from wrong. I'm not saying she was a cold-blooded killer, but this was a conscious decision on her part."
In exchange for Hendricks' guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to write a letter to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole asking that Hendricks serve 15 years in prison. DiReda said he will also write a letter asking that she be given credit for the 500-plus days she has been in jail awaiting a resolution in the case.
We realize she had some mental health issues, but that doesn't excuse what she did.
–- Prosecutor Dean Saunders.
Saunders said the other twin, Daniel, was taken into foster care following Robert's death and has since been adopted. Both Jewell and Philip Hendricks relinquished their parental rights to the child.
Last year, a detective testified that Hendricks confessed to squeezing her son hard enough to break his collar bone, then rolled his body into a sleeping bag and laid on top of him to make him stop crying. "She said having twins was too much to handle and explained that she loved Daniel more … and it was her intent to have a better life and kill Robert," Ogden police detective Brian Eynon testified.
But Bushell said Friday that was not true and his client never loved one twin more than the other.
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