A Minnesota mother is facing prison time for murdering her 23-month-old son by repeatedly slamming his head into a bedroom wall and then lying to police about what happened, claiming he was run over by his father, who happened to be in the shop at the time.
“She took my baby’s life,” said Robert Ortez, the father of Aaryan, who was murdered by his mother, Larena Jackson, in August 2023. “I still don’t know what happened because she hasn’t said anything,” Ortez told Valley News Live. “I am still trying to figure out why she did it. I’m not sure why.
Jackson, 31, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison on Monday after pleading guilty in February to second-degree murder in the death of her son. She claimed in her written plea petition that she was intoxicated when she fatally injured Aaryan with blunt force trauma.
“I was so high on drugs that I had no idea what I was doing at the time of the crime, and I’m entering this plea on the Norgaard basis,” Jackson told Valley News Live.
A Norgaard plea allows Minnesota defendants to admit to a crime and accept the prosecution’s case while also admitting that they are unable to recall specific facts due to intoxication or other memory loss.
On the day Aaryan was killed, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a child being run over by a car. Jackson had called police and claimed Ortez had murdered the boy, unaware that his car was being worked on.
“I had a car in the shop that I supposedly ran over Aaryan with, but I was driving another car,” Ortez told Valley News Live.
A search of Jackson’s Cass Lake home revealed large amounts of blood scattered throughout, and investigators also discovered large holes in the wall that resembled the shape of a toddler’s head. Aaryan died at the hospital five days later.
In addition to murder, Jackson was charged with first-degree assault, malicious punishment of a child, and fleeing a police officer. She was sentenced to serve at least 17 1/2 years, with credit for 581 days served.
“She deserves life in prison,” Ortez said.
