By Roxana Orellana
The Salt Lake Tribune
Ogden, Utah — A 27-year-old Ogden woman who killed one of her twin sons because she wanted only a single baby was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison.
Jewell Hendricks had pleaded guilty in 2nd District Court to first-degree felony murder for smothering her 2-month-old son, Robert, with a sleeping bag on Jan. 24, 2010.
Hendricks “bear-hugged” the infant until he stopped crying, then she lay on top of him for several hours, court documents state.
Judge Michael DiReda, who has twins himself, said the case was one of “profound sorrow.”
“This is sorrow that is difficult to quantify,” the judge told Hendricks. “The devastation that you have caused to your family, to yourself, and, quite honestly, to your surviving child, Daniel, is incomprehensible. It is hard to even find words that can properly explain it.”
DiReda added, “It is tragic that when you finally found it so difficult that you couldn’t cope anymore that this is what you allowed yourself to do.”
Hendricks, who has no prior criminal record, was dealing with a number of problems, including post-partum depression, the fact that the twins were born premature and the stress of a pending eviction, according to family members and her defense attorney.
Hendricks’ grandmother, June Morgan, said Hendricks’ mother died when she was 12, and that Hendricks was a victim of physical and sexual abuse.
Defense attorney Ryan Bushell said Hendricks has mental deficiencies that he believes played a role in the homicide.
Bushell told the court she was “25 going on 14,” referring to when he met her two years ago.
Deputy Weber County Attorney Dean Saunders said that his office realizes Hendricks “has some mental issues.” But he said that did not excuse her actions.
Saunders called her a functioning adult, who had completed a GED and held a job.
“She knew right from wrong,” Saunders said. “This was a conscious decision on her part. [She] thought it through and thought her life would be easier with one child instead of two.”
A weeping Hendricks told the judge: “I do have to live with this for the rest of my life. I know I can’t bring Robert back. And I love him no matter what. I’m not really a cold-hearted person.”
The defendant’s husband, Phil Hendricks, held a photograph of the twins while insisting that his wife loved both of the boys.
Police have said that Phil Hendricks was at work when his wife killed Robert.
At a preliminary hearing last year, medical experts said Robert died from a combination of blunt force injuries to the head and smothering. The boy had a skull facture, bruising on the head and arms, a broken collarbone and bleeding of the eye, court documents state.
In exchange for Hendricks’ guilty plea to the murder charge, prosecutors dismissed one count of misdemeanor child abuse, which alleged she pinched and squeezed the surviving twin, Daniel, when he cried in the days leading up to the other twin’s death.
Daniel was initially taken into state custody. Bushell said the boy has since been adopted by another family.
As part of Hendricks’ plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to write a letter to the Board of Pardons and Parole recommending she serve a maximum of 15 years behind bars.
The judge gave Hendricks credit for 593 days she spent in jail awaiting resolution of the case.
Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake Tribune