[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A mom in Minnesota has been sentenced to nearly two decades in jail after cops finally uncovered a horrific story regarding the tragic death of her toddler son.
So, back in the summer of 2023, Larena Jackson (pictured above, in her mugshot) called the cops in her rural hometown of Cass Lake, Minnesota to report that her 23-month-old son Aaryan had been run over by a car. According to her initial statement to police on August 19 of that year, Aaryan had been struck by a car that was driven by the baby’s father, Robert Ortez.
Cops responded to the scene to find the young boy severely injured. He was transported immediately to a hospital where he was listed in critical condition. Officers were quickly able to track down Ortez, too, in the city of Bemidji, Minnesota about 16 miles away from Cass Lake. But upon finding him, they were not able to find the vehicle which Jackson claimed had run over the boy.
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According to multiple local news outlets, the baby boy had severe lacerations on the top of his head, across his forehead, on his lip, and under his left eye. His injuries were so severe that doctors at the hospital predicted the boy would likely die. And though they did their best to save him, five days later — on August 24, 2023 — Aaryan suffered a cardiac event related to his injuries and passed away.
So tragic…
Upon investigation into the boy’s death, detectives almost immediately began to suspect that the child had not actually been struck by a car. Jackson stuck to her story, according to Valley News Live, and for a while maintained that she and Ortez had gotten in a fight on the night of the child’s death. After that fight, she claimed Ortez took the boy in his car before later contacting her to say he’d left the toddler in the middle of the road a ways down the street — eventually running him over before leaving.
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Not What It Seems?
But Ortez pushed back on that claim when questioned by cops. Investigators were eventually able to determine that he’d been at his home 16 miles away in Bemidji at the time Jackson was claiming the two had gotten into an argument. And not only that, but the car Jackson claimed to have been the one which ran Aaryan over was actually having work done in a mechanic’s shop at the time of the tragedy.
As cops deepened their investigation, Jackson’s story changed. She made multiple claims at various times, according to the Brainerd Dispatch and other outlets that viewed court documents in the case. Eventually, her recorded statement to detectives asserted that she had been carrying her son down the street after picking him up where his father had abandoned him when she tripped and fell, causing the boy’s injuries.
But that also seemed to go against logic! See, the initial responding sheriff’s deputy had made notes on the case when they came across the boy on that fateful August day. Among the notes were the deputy’s observations that the boy had multiple lacerations on his head that were actively bleeding — with others that appeared to have already been cleaned up prior to his arrival on scene.
Suspicion Grows
Cops became even more suspicious when Jackson’s own mother told them that Ortez had not been to the Cass Lake home or contacted Jackson for WEEKS before the toddler was injured, according to the Dispatch. So, suspecting that something else might have happened, cops searched Jackson’s home.
In it, they found blood in multiple areas of a bedroom, and a significant amount of blood staining a mattress. The mattress in question had also been placed underneath a box spring — a move sheriff’s deputies pondered in their report could have been done to cover up a crime.
Even worse, cops soon discovered two indentations in the bedroom’s sheet rock wall. Per the report, the shape of the indentations was consistent with that of a toddler’s head. Oh, and the indentations also had blood specks spattered across them.
Seriously.
That made cops believe that Jackson, and not Ortez, might have been responsible for the boy’s death — by allegedly smashing his head into the wall. So, they went looking for Jackson. The Dispatch reported they were eventually able to find her hiding inside a bathroom cabinet in a friend’s house. WTF?!
She was arrested and charged with multiple felonies including second degree murder, first degree assault, and malicious punishment of a child under four years. She was also hit with a misdemeanor charge of fleeing a peace officer.
Facing The Consequences
Fast forward to Monday of this week, then, when Jackson was finally sentenced to serve 210 months — or 17-and-a-half years — in prison.
According to KSTP News, she had pleaded guilty to one count of second degree unintentional murder in the case back on February 10. As part of her plea deal, all the other charges against her were dismissed.
Also as part of her deal, Jackson chose to plead to the crime on what is known as a “Norgaard basis.” That’s a specific provision in Minnesota law that allows defendants to admit to committing a crime and acknowledge the strength of a prosecutor’s case against them, but at the same time maintain that they have no recollection of committing the act itself because of intoxication or other memory loss.
Thus, in her petition, Jackson had claimed she was “under the influence of drugs,” and she “didn’t know what I was doing” when the boy died.
But Is It Enough??
For his part, Ortez doesn’t buy Jackson’s claim that she doesn’t remember the events leading up to the boy’s death. Speaking to Valley News Live about the mom’s 210-month sentence, he argued:
“She wasn’t doing no drugs [at the time of Aaryan’s death]. She was drinking, but she ain’t have no outbursts like she said in court. I didn’t see her get violent at all. I don’t know where she’s coming from saying she had blackouts.”
And even though Jackson was hit with the maximum possible sentence for her crime relative to the plea deal and the special Norgaard claim, Ortez says it still isn’t enough. He said:
“She deserves life in prison.”
In the end, he’s still at a loss in trying to understand why Aaryan had to die in the first place. He concluded:
“I still don’t know, to this day, what really happened because she isn’t saying anything. I’m still trying to figure out why she did it. I don’t know why or nothing.”
You can see more on this horrific case (below):
What a truly terrible situation.
We send our prayers up to that poor little boy. Ugh.
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
[Image via Cass County Sheriff’s Office]
