LAYTON, Utah, Oct. 13, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — A Layton man has been found guilty of the 2015 aggravated murder of his then-girlfriend’s toddler son.
Joshua Schoenenberger, now 37, was accused of killing the 2-year-old boy because of anger over potty-training issues. Schoenenberger and the child’s mother, Jasmine Bridgeman, took the boy to Davis Hospital and Medical Center on May 9, 2015.
According to court documents, Schoenenberger originally told police he had found the boy unresponsive after leaving him in the bathtub unattended, but later admitted to stepping on the boy’s stomach.
The child, identified in court papers as J.J., reportedly had been urinating around Schoenenberger’s residence during the four months he and his mother had been living there.
J.J. — later identified as James Sieger Jr. — died two days later, on May 11, 2015, at Primary Children’s Hospital. Doctors there said his injuries were consistent with blunt force trauma to the abdomen, court documents indicate.
Schonenberger’s Friday conviction came after a weeklong trial in Farmington’s 2nd District Court.
Bridgeman, now 26, was sentenced to one-to-15 years at the Utah State Prison after pleading guilty in 2016 to obstruction of justice.
Schoenenberger is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 26.
