FARMINGTON, Utah, April 18, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — A convicted child killer from Layton has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in the Utah State Prison.
Joshua Scott Schoenenberger, 38, heard his sentence for child-abuse homicide, a first-degree felony, on Wednesday in Farmington’s Second District Court.
Schoenenberger was sentenced in the May 9, 2015 beating of 2-year-old James “J.J.” Sieger, the son of Schoenenberger’s then-girlfriend, Jasmine Ruth Bridgeman.
The toddler was first taken to Davis County Hospital, then transferred to Primary Children’s Hospital in critical condition, with severe internal injuries, according to court documents. He later died.
Although Schoenenberger and Bridgeman initially told responding officers that J.J. was found, face down in a water-filled tub, no water was found in the child’s airways, a probable cause statement says.
Bridgeman later admitted Schonenberger had punished the toddler after a potty-training incident, court documents say.
Utah’s chief medical examiner said he found multiple blunt-force injuries to the toddler’s head, abdomen, torso and extremities. Tears were found in the child’s colon, and his liver had hemorrhaged.
Bridgeman, 27, was sentenced in 2016 to one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison. Her next parole hearing is set for May of 2020.
