OGDEN — Jewell Hendricks wiped tears from her eyes as a medical examiner detailed the numerous brain injuries that led to the death of Hendricks' 2-month-old son, Robert.
Witnesses testified in a preliminary hearing Wednesday that the Ogden woman said she killed Robert, one of her twin sons, in an effort to "have a better life." Ogden police detective Brian Eynon said he interviewed Hendricks four separate times, and the woman made a clear confession in the smothering death of her child.
"She said she broke down and she squeezed Robert hard enough to break his collar bone," Eynon testified. "After that, she rolled his body into a sleeping bag and laid on top of him, crushing him to make him stop fussing and 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."
Hendricks, 26, is charged in 2nd District Court with murder, a first-degree felony, in Robert's death, and child abuse, a class A misdemeanor, for allegedly "pinching and grabbing" Daniel to the point that the child had bruises.
Ogden police officers responded to Hendricks' apartment, 449 27th Street, on Jan. 24 after Hendricks called 911 to report that her son was not breathing. The boy was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Though Eynon said Hendricks came to the police department and voluntarily confessed to killing her son, her attorney, Ryan Bushell, argued that she was a "distraught" mother who was frustrated with a crying child, placed her baby in a sleeping bag next to her and woke up to find him dead.
While Hendricks said Robert had fallen numerous times in the day leading up to his death, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the boy testified that he died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head that was too severe to have been sustained in a fall. Dr. Pamela Ulmer ruled the death a homicide but said she could neither confirm nor deny that the boy had been smothered.
"It's common not to see a sign of smothering," Ulmer said. "There are no telltale signs or injuries with compression or squeezing, but I was not seeing any rib fractures, which you would expect."
Bushell argued that because there was no evidence that the boy suffocated — beyond his mother's confession — and because Hendricks said the injuries were caused by accidental falls, the charge should be reduced to something more along the lines of child abuse or neglect.
Prosecutor Dean Saunders disagreed.
"There is evidence of smothering," Saunders said. "(Hendricks) told the officers how she did it and that she did it on purpose. She wanted the baby to die and tells the officer that at one point. Just because the medical examiner can't see evidence in no way disproves the confession."
Second District Judge Michael DiReda found that there was evidence to support both charges and ordered that Hendricks be bound over for trial. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 29.
Daniel was placed in protective custody with the state Division of Child and Family Services following his twin's death.
e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com