Report: Conviction Reversed for Illinois Mom Sentenced in 11-Year-Old Son’s Death

A Park City, Illinois, mother’s conviction has apparently been reversed after she was sentenced for contributing to her child’s death by failing to give him care once he underwent a major surgery in 2016.

Jennifer Stroud was previously sentenced to eight years behind bars in the case after being charged with involuntary manslaughter of a family member and two counts of child endangerment causing death, the Lake and McHenry County Scanner reported Saturday.

Images show the woman and child:

Charges were filed against her in the months after her 11-year-old son, Jason Stroud, passed away on September 11, 2016.

His death occurred four years after he received a heart transplant, according to the Associated Press (AP).

In 2012, the mother claimed the boy’s heart was in rejection and failure because of a disease from rare genes that were discovered in the donated organ, the Scanner article said.

Once the boy’s family changed hospitals a few years later, they were scheduled for regular appointments at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

However, they reportedly did not show up on several of those dates.

Prosecutors claimed the child’s body was rejecting the donor heart because his regular medicine was not being administered by his parents, who were supposed to be caring for him.

The child’s father, David Stroud, eventually pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and received a five-year sentence.

During Jennifer Stroud’s trial in 2022, a pharmacist testified that heart transplant patients must take two medications at regular times each day to avoid organ rejection, and missing doses can pose a significant danger.

According to UVA Health, one form of organ rejection is called “acute rejection” which occurs in the first months after a person undergoes surgery.

Another form is “chronic rejection” that can happen one year after surgery or in the following years.

Jennifer Stroud was later found guilty and sentenced, but she appealed and “the Illinois Second District Appellate Court issued a ruling earlier this week siding with Stroud and reversing her conviction and ordering a new trial,” the Scanner report continued:

The court said the mental state for child endangerment is “knowledge” and the mental state for involuntary manslaughter is “recklessness.”

The state’s attorney is now planning to appeal the recent decision in the case.