This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Davis County prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty against a Layton man accused of beating his girlfriend's 2-year-old son to death over potty training issues.
Joshua Schoenenberger, 35, is charged in 2nd District Court with first-degree felony aggravated murder and second-degree felony child abuse for allegedly inflicting fatal injuries last year on James "J.J." Sieger Jr.
The Davis County Attorney's Office confirmed on Friday — the statutory deadline to declare their intent — that they would not seek Schoenenberger's execution.
Prosecutors, though, did not immediately say why they made that decision.
Schoenenberger, who will be in court again on June 27 for a scheduling conference, was charged under "Shelby's Law," a 2007 statute that allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty if a child dies during an act of abuse, sexual assault or kidnapping — even if the defendant does not intend to kill the victim.
A handful of accused killers have been charged under "Shelby's Law," but none have gone to trial, which leaves the statute as yet unproven before a jury and untested by an appellate court. Most of those defendants resolved their cases in plea deals, while one remains incompetent to stand trial.
During a January preliminary hearing, Layton police Detective Ryan Jeppson testified that Schoenenberger offered police a variety of explanations for how the toddler suffered what proved to be fatal blows to his stomach and bruising all over his body.
Schoenenberger initially told police that he had left the child alone in the bathtub for 40 minutes on May 9, 2015, and then found him face-down in the water.
The man then flipped his story, saying it was his girlfriend, 24-year-old Jasmine Bridgeman, who had been left alone with the child.
Then, he said, it was Bridgeman who "beat" the child.
But Jeppson testified that Schoenenberger eventually admitted to police that he had inflicted the injuries, allegedly admitting that while taking a shower with the young boy, he picked him up, squeezed him hard and then dropped him.
"He was upset about, essentially, J.J. not listening to him," Jeppson testified. "[And that] J.J. was struggling with potty training."
Jeppson also testified that Schoenenberger was visibly upset as he told police that the boy, who died two days after he was taken to the hospital, had been removing his diaper and spreading feces on the walls.
Bridgeman was charged with second-degree felony obstruction of justice for lying to police as they investigated her son's death. She was sentenced in April to a one-to-15 year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the charge.