Foster child, 10, is found dead minutes after asking neighbor to adopt him to save him from abusive mom who is now charged with murder

A 10-year-old foster child was found dead minutes after he asked a neighbor to adopt him and rescue him from his abusive foster mother.

According to authorities in Indiana, Dakota Levi Stevens ran to his neighbor’s house on April 25 and told the homeowner that his foster parents had beaten him and would not let him talk to his social worker.

But his foster mother, Jennifer Lee Wilson, 48, caught him talking to the neighbor just minutes later and forced Stevens into her car and drove him back to her house, according to court documents obtained by the Kansas City Star.

The 155-kilogram woman then reportedly lay on top of the child for at least seven minutes until he stopped breathing.

An arrest warrant has now been issued for Wilson, charging her with manslaughter and reckless homicide in connection with the boy’s death.

Dakota was pronounced dead two days later at a South Bend hospital, and an autopsy revealed he had suffered organ and soft tissue damage, bleeding in the liver and lungs, and other injuries, This was reported by CBS News.

The St. Joseph County Coroner’s Office has since ruled Stevens’ death a homicide and that he died of mechanical asphyxiation.

Prosecutors said Wilson and her husband wanted to give up their foster licenses because their three other children — former foster children they adopted — were older and they wanted to travel.

They agreed to take Stevens in because they had already provided him with respite care two years earlier.

Stevens’ biological family told the Chicago Tribune He and his younger sister were removed from their biological parents’ home because their parents had been using drugs when Dakota was only five years old.

His father died and his mother eventually gave up her parental rights.

Dakota’s sister was later adopted, while Dakota was bounced between relatives, foster homes and a mental health facility before moving back in with Wilson in early April.

She later claimed the boy had “problems with verbal and physical aggression.”

An arrest warrant has now been issued for the foster mother, Jennifer Lee Wilson, 48, who is charged with reckless homicide in connection with the boy’s death.

Wilson told police that Stevens woke up restless on April 25 after being told not to run around the house while he was playing with Nerf guns with the other children, CBS News reported.

She said she then told Dakota and the other children they could go outside to play after their chores, but Stevens refused and stormed off.

At first she said she wanted to give him time to cool off, but when she saw he wasn’t in the backyard, she got in her car to track him down.

Wilson caught him talking to the neighbor, who told the foster mother that the boy had asked her to call the police.

Wilson later told police she told the neighbor to mind her own business, court documents show.

Family members have said he and his younger sister were removed from their biological parents’ home because of their parents’ reported drug use when Dakota was just 5 years old.

She then allegedly forced Stevens into her car and drove him to her house.

Wilson claims he tried to run away at that point.

She told police she couldn’t remember if she tackled the boy or if they both fell to the ground. “But her intention was to hold him down.”

Wilson reportedly spent the next few minutes chatting with Stevens’ social worker via video chat. She said the worker tried to calm the boy down over the phone, while Stevens “was flailing and flailing her arms.”

Wilson also had a conversation with her husband through their Ring doorbell camera while she was “up” [Dakota’s] “Middle section” near the driveway, court documents say.

She reportedly told her husband Stevens that he was having “one of his days.”

Wilson alleged that Stevens had ‘problems with verbal and physical aggression’

After several minutes, Wilson got off the boy. She told police she was out of breath from the boy’s weight. She noticed Stevens wasn’t moving.

She then told the boy to stand up and asked, “Are you faking it?” court documents state.

Then she rolled [Stevens] “He looked very pale and it appeared his eyelids were pale,” court documents said.

‘She then started CPR and called 911.’

Porter County Sheriff’s Department officers arrived at the home around 3:37 p.m. on a report of an unconscious 10-year-old who was not breathing, the Chicago Tribune reported.

They then found Stevens on the ground near the driveway, where someone was performing CPR.

Court documents show Stevens was unconscious, not breathing and had no pulse at the time, and an officer “observed the minor had bruises [on] ‘his lower neck and chest area.’

A police statement said Wilson was “visibly distraught” when officers arrived at her home on April 25 and found the boy lying on the floor, not breathing and without a pulse.

A police statement said Wilson was “visibly upset” when officers arrived and told them Stevens had just fled to a neighbor’s house, but was still acting “unwanted” and threw himself to the ground, saying he was leaving.

According to the Tribune, the affidavit states: “Wilson stated she got on his stomach and called his social worker.”

‘Wilson stated that at one point he stopped moving and she thought he was faking it.’

“She said she was on top of him for about five minutes.”

During the subsequent investigation, police obtained copies of footage of Wilson’s Ring, which they say began with her already on top of the boy, near his head and neck.

According to police, Stevens screamed throughout the 20-second video.

In the next 20-second video he was “still crying and screaming,” and in a third video Wilson was still seen on top of him — this time by his buttocks.

Stevens held his arms above his head in the video and according to police, he “doesn’t move” throughout the entire six-minute, 48-second clip.

Meanwhile, Wilson was heard saying, “I was on top of him and he was misbehaving.”

The St. Joseph County Coroner’s Office has since determined that Stevens died of mechanical asphyxiation

Stevens was initially taken to Northwest Health Porter for treatment, before being airlifted to South Bend Memorial Hospital.

A Northwest Health doctor later told police he had “severe swelling in his brain, which could indicate prolonged oxygen deprivation.”

“He didn’t deserve this. He was better than a lot of people here,” Nicole Rubalcava, Stevens’ aunt, said at his private funeral, according to the Tribune.

“Even though he fought this, this boy’s heart was really not made for this world,” she continued.

“He really taught me so much, and I never thought a child could teach you something like that.”

Wilson’s foster care license was revoked after the autopsy report and has since been revoked

Wilson’s foster care license was suspended pending revocation and possible appeal after the coroner ruled Stevens’ death a homicide.

She had been licensed as a foster parent since 2017 and was in good standing before Stevens’ death. She “had completed the required training and education necessary to obtain and maintain a license,” Indiana Department of Child Services officials told the Tribune.

But on June 30, her driver’s license was finally revoked.

Wilson is now being held on $20,000 bail, and Porter County District Attorney Gary Germann told WGN He thinks she will surrender within a few days.

He added that he does not believe she poses a flight risk.