A Park City woman whose neglect of her child’s care led to his death following a heart transplant was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison by a Lake County judge, who said the woman violated basic laws of humanity.
Jennifer Stroud, 41, was found guilty in May of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the death of her son, Jason. The boy died at age 11 in September 2016, about five years after he received a heart transplant for a congenital condition.
Prosecutors alleged that Stroud failed to make Jason’s health a priority, missing doctor appointments and failing to keep up with the boy’s anti-rejection medicine in the months before he died.
Judge Daniel Shanes handed down the sentence Thursday, twice calling the case a “tremendous tragedy.”
“You violated not only the laws of the state of Illinois, but the fundamental, basic laws of humanity,” Shanes told Stroud.
“You and your husband squandered the gift of life. That’s what this case is about,” the judge said.
Her former husband, David, previously pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Before she was sentenced, Stroud, who is pregnant with her current boyfriend, addressed the court, saying she allowed martial problems and other issues to interfere with her only child’s care.
“I realize I failed. I was broken,” she said.
Her attorney, Elliot Pinsell, said Stroud had a difficult life, and her treatment of her son was not premeditated.
“He was the only thing she had to hold on to,” said Pinsell, who asked for a sentence of probation.
But Assistant State’s Attorney Eric Kalata said Stroud had not accepted her share of the responsibility for her son’s death, and that she had a “moral, legal and ethical responsibility” to protect him.
“She and her husband failed him because she and her husband simply blew it off,” Kalata told the judge.
The prosecutor said Jason’s death had broader implications: It affected the family of the dead child who donated the heart, and to some other family whose child may have died because a donor heart wasn’t available in time.
Stroud, who had no prior convictions, is eligible for day-for-day credit and also will be credited for the 75 days she has spent in custody. That means she could be released from prison in about three years and nine months. She faced a maximum term of 14 years in prison.
