When police got here to the house of child Aaryan’s father, Robert Ortez, in Bemidji, Minnesota, they discovered him there, however they didn’t discover the automobile Aaryan’s mom mentioned he’d been driving when he hit their child.

Based on court docket paperwork, Larena Jackson, 31, contacted police on August 19, 2023, with a report that her youngster had been run over by a automobile that had subsequently left, in keeping with Valley Information Dwell on the time.

Deputies with the Cass County Sheriff’s Workplace started life-saving efforts on the scene earlier than Aaryan was transported to a hospital with life-threatening accidents.

Court docket paperwork seen by the information outlet, as reported in February 2025, detailed that the infant had a laceration on the highest of his head, on his brow, beneath his left eye, and a break up lip. The lacerations have been described as deep and actively bleeding when the report was written.

Medical professionals suggested authorities that the accidents have been deadly and the toddler would possible die inside a couple of days. On August 24, 2023 at 8:25 p.m., Aaryan suffered a cardiac arrest occasion, believed associated to the accidents he’d suffered 5 days prior, and died.

Based on a press launch from investigators in 2023, it was believed the kid’s accidents have been the results of blunt power trauma by means of suspected youngster abuse and never, actually, from being struck or run over by a automobile, as Jackson had reported.

“The cop got here to my home, and mentioned your son has been in an accident,” Ortez informed Valley Information Dwell in February, recalling the day he’d came upon about his son’s accidents.

Jackson initially informed police that she and Ortez had been in a combat that night time and that Ortez had taken the kid in his automobile earlier that night. She mentioned he later contacted her and informed her he was leaving the toddler within the highway down the road.

She purportedly informed police believed it was there that Ortez had run the kid over and left him. Jackson even gave police an outline of Ortez’s automobile. However she did not know the reality.

“It didn’t make sense,” Ortez informed Valley Information Dwell. “I had a automobile within the store that I supposedly ran over Aaryan with, however I had a unique automobile I used to be driving.”

On prime of that, he’d been at his house on the time of this supposed argument with Jackson, and had, actually, not been within the Cass Lake space just lately in any respect, in keeping with the investigation.

When requested to see her cellphone log to confirm that Ortez had known as her, Jackson informed police that her cellphone was lifeless when he known as.

“He known as me and I informed him my cellphone was lifeless,” she informed police, per the Brainerd Dispatch. She then mentioned it may need occurred on her pill, but it surely was damaged and did not obtain calls.

Police reported a number of tales from Jackson as to what occurred, together with her eventual recorded assertion, the place she mentioned she’d been carrying her son down the road after choosing him up the place his father had deserted him and he or she had fallen over, inflicting the accidents.

Police said that the infant was wrapped in a towel and Jackson was immune to allow them to shut sufficient to see him. However they did discover a seeming lack of blood, dry or moist, anyplace on his physique.

The responding deputy did discover a number of lacerations on his head that have been actively bleeding, per the Dispatch, noting in his report that it appeared as if that they had been cleaned up previous to his arrival. Jackson claimed to have taken him inside in an try to wash his accidents within the bathtub.

Investigators spoke with Jackson’s mom, who informed them she’d been staying together with her daughter for a number of days however had left round 5 p.m. on August 19, 2023, attributable to Jackson’s ingesting, rudeness, and confrontational habits, per the Dispatch. She additionally informed him Aaryan’s father had not been to the house or contacted Jackson in three weeks.

Police searched Jackson’s house, and there uncovered what they imagine really occurred, in keeping with their documentation. Inside the home, investigators reported discovering blood in a number of areas in a bed room, together with an excessive amount of blood on a mattress. This mattress was obscured beneath a field spring, as if it had been positioned there to cowl up the blood.

In addition they discovered two indentations within the sheetrock of the bed room wall, per their report, which have been in keeping with the form of a toddler’s head. These indentations additionally had blood splatter, main investigators to imagine Jackson had triggered her son’s accidents by smashing his head into this wall.

Discovered hiding inside a cupboard within the rest room of a buddy’s home, per the Dispatch, Jackson was arrested on August 22, 2023, two days earlier than her son’s loss of life within the hospital.

Jackson was hit with felony fees of 2nd diploma homicide, 1st diploma assault, malicious punishment of a kid beneath 4 years, and a misdemeanor cost of fleeing a peace officer.

On Monday, March 24, Jackson was sentenced to 210 months in jail, or 17.5 years, with credit score for 581 days served, in keeping with ABC affiliate KSTP. This after she pleaded responsible to 1 depend of 2nd diploma unintentional homicide on February 10. With that plea, the opposite fees towards her have been dismissed.

Sadly for Ortez, and different family members, Jackson’s responsible plea and sentencing do not include any solutions as to precisely what occurred — and maybe extra importantly, why.

“I nonetheless don’t know, to today, what actually occurred as a result of she isn’t saying something,” Ortez informed Valley Information Dwell. “I am nonetheless making an attempt to determine why she did it. I do not know why or nothing.”

In her petition, Jackson said that she was “so beneath the affect of medication.” She wrote, “I didn’t know what I used to be doing on the time of the crime and am getting into this plea on Norgaard foundation.”

A Norgaard plea in Minnesota is a provision that permits defendants to confess to a criminal offense, acknowledge the power of the prosecutions’ case towards them, whereas sustaining they haven’t any recollection of any particular details attributable to intoxication or otherwise-caused reminiscence loss.

Ortez, although, is not shopping for that Jackson would not keep in mind. “She wasn’t doing no medicine. She was ingesting, however she ain’t haven’t any outbursts like she mentioned in court docket,” he mentioned. “I did not see her get violent in any respect. I do not know the place she’s coming from saying she had blackouts.”

Whereas Jackson was hit with what seemed to be the utmost attainable sentence for the crime, Ortez nonetheless would not suppose it is sufficient. “She deserves life in jail,” he mentioned.