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Jennifer Jill Edwards will stand trial for child abuse and torture after doctors at Sutter Coast Hospital treated a 4-year-old foster child in her care for hypothermia last month, Del Norte County Superior Court Judge William Follett ruled Wednesday.

The alleged victim also displayed evidence of starvation and had marks on his body that Sutter Coast Hospital staff identified as consistent with injuries from possible child abuse, Dr. James Crawford-Jakubiak, medical director of the Center for Child Protection at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, testified via phone Monday.

The 4-year-old was taken to Sutter Coast Hospital after a choking incident on Nov. 7. Hospital staff transferred him to Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland on Nov. 8, Crawford-Jakubiak told the court.

“(The victim’s) body temperature was 85.9 degrees Fahrenheit. Normal temperature is 98.6 degrees,” Crawford-Jakubiak told Deputy District Attorney Todd Zocchi.

Crawford-Jakubiak said a 4-year-old exposed to the cold would be more at risk of hypothermia than an adult because they wouldn’t have the level of body fat an older person would.

“In (the alleged victim’s) case he had virtually no body fat due to his starved state,” Crawford-Jakubiak testified Monday.

After two days of testimony, Follett ruled Wednesday there was enough evidence to hold Edwards to account for charges of child abuse with a special allegation for great bodily injury. Follett also found there was enough evidence to hold Edwards for misdemeanor of possession of drug paraphernalia and felony criminal storage of a firearm in the third degree.

Though he initially disputed the prosecution’s argument, Follett also ruled Wednesday that there was enough evidence to charge Edwards with torture.

However, Follett said pointed out the prosecution didn’t present enough evidence to charge Edwards with cruelty to animals. At the request of Edwards’ attorney, George Mavris, Follett said he would make a ruling on Friday as to whether Edwards’ adult children can take their pets home.

On Monday, Crawford-Jakubiak testified that paramedics transported the alleged victim to the hospital following a choking incident on Nov. 7. People at Edwards’ home performed the Heimlich maneuver and CPR, but when paramedics arrived the alleged victim was unresponsive, Crawford-Jakubiak testified.

Crawford-Jakubiak said paramedics found the alleged victim hypothermic, and Sutter Coast Hospital staff determined that due to his injuries he needed a higher level of pediatric care and transported him to UCSF Children’s Hospital in Oakland. The alleged victim arrived to the UCSF facility on Nov. 8, according to Crawford-Jakubiak.

The alleged victim weighed a little under 31 pounds when he was brought to Sutter Coast Hospital on Nov. 7 at age 4, Crawford-Jakubiak had testified Monday. The alleged victim was in the 2nd percentile for a 4-year-old’s weight, the doctor told the court. A year prior to the Nov. 7 incident, the alleged victim was in the 50th percentile — or about average — for 3 1/2 year-olds, Crawford-Jakubiak said.

“He was lighter than around 98 out of 100 kids born on his birthday and he used to be average,” Crawford-Jakubiak said of the alleged victim, adding that his vitamin C and protein levels were compromised because of his starvation.

“He was profoundly malnourished. He not only failed to gain weight, but he had lost weight over the previous year to a year and a half.”

Crawford-Jakubiak said during the month the alleged victim was at Benioff Children’s Hospital, his weight was “nearly vertical” because he was eating.

During Crawford-Jakubiak’s testimony, Zocchi submitted photographs the doctor had taken of the alleged victim on Nov. 8 as evidence. These pictures showed a large knot on the alleged victim’s head, healing abrasions on his forehead and scabs to his face and nose. Crawford-Jakubiak testified that the victim’s nose was also swollen.

The photos showed scrapes to the alleged victim’s right hand and deformation on his right and left arms. Crawford-Jakubiak said X-rays showed healing fractures on the alleged victim’s right and left arms.

The photos also showed linear abrasions on the victim’s right and left legs, some traveling the length of his calf from below the knee as well as up the inner and back thigh. According to Crawford-Jakubiak, there were no abrasions on the top or bottom of the alleged victim's feet, though his ankles and toes were swollen due to suspected cellulitis, a minor skin infection. The doctor said those abrasions were caused by a sharp object traveling in a linear way along the alleged victim's legs.

Pictures of the alleged victim’s back showed abrasions on the mid-back as well as hair growth. The hair, Crawford-Jakubiak testified, is “not uncommon with children who’ve been starved for a long time.”

Zocche asked Crawford-Jakubiak if being in a wire crib without a mattress and with zip ties holding it together could have caused those abrasions. The prosecution noted that the defense’s explanation for the abrasions was the victim ran through a berry patch naked, but the doctor said if that was the case the marks would have been perpendicular to the body and there would have been injuries on the victim’s feet.

Crawford-Jakubiak also testified that the victim’s medical records from Sutter Coast Hospital showed that in December 2018, he was treated for a perforated small intestine. The surgeons who repaired the perforation in that case didn’t offer a presumptive diagnosis, Crawford-Jakubiak said, but in his opinion some abdominal force caused the injury to his intestine.

The victim’s medical records also showed he presented to Sutter Coast Hospital in August 2018 with a fractured upper jaw, Crawford-Jakubiak testified. According to the doctor, the victim’s guardian told Sutter Coast doctors that the injury was caused by a fall from a shopping cart.

Another visit to Sutter Coast Hospital at the end of October 2018 showed blood behind the victim’s eardrum and an inability to open his mouth.

“That’s consistent with an injury to his jaw and head,” Crawford-Jakubiak told the court.

While the victim was hospitalized at UCSF Children’s Hospital, Edwards allegedly indicated that the child picks at his skin and “otherwise mutilates himself,” Crawford-Jakubiak told the court.

During medical visits in May 2019, staff noted the victim was missing four lower teeth, Crawford-Jakubiak testified. He told the court that Edwards allegedly said the victim pulled out his own teeth at daycare.

“Given the assertion that (the victim) is injurious to himself we had nurses keep a very close eye on him to make sure he wasn’t doing that,” Crawford-Jakubiak testified. “But… during the entire duration he at no point ever engaged in any self injurious behavior.”

Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin, whose testimony followed Crawford-Jakubiak’s, said officers served a search warrant on Edwards’ Oregon Street home on Nov. 8. Griffin said he spoke with Edwards’ 4-year-old adopted son and her 11-year-old biological son. Two adults, Edwards ex-husband and current boyfriend, Christopher Edwards, and an 18-year-old babysitter, were also present when officers served the search warrant.

During the search, Griffin testified, officers found a crib with dog kennel-type wires and a mattress in a bedroom the alleged victim shared with Edwards’ 4-year-old adopted son. He said the wires were secured with zip ties. Two plastic tubs and potty-training pads were underneath the crib, Griffin testified. He said law enforcement stood the mattress up in the crib to see what was underneath it.

“There was an overpowering smell of ammonia (from) urine and feces,” Griffin testified. "I was fighting back not being sick.”

Griffin said he, another officer, Jonathan Cooper, who testified before Follett on Wednesday, and an employee with Del Norte County Child Protective Services spoke with Edwards' 4-year-old adopted son on Nov. 8. During this interview, he said that when his foster sibling got in trouble, his mother — the defendant — would hit him and throw him down into the crib.

According to the adopted son, Griffin testified, his foster sibling would sneak out of the crib and “go eat everything.”

The adopted son also told an interviewer from the Child Abuse Services Team, or CAST, that the alleged victim would “drink his own piss," Griffin testified on Monday.

“(The 4-year-old) pointed toward the bedroom and said (the alleged victim) stayed on the wires,” Griffin testified. “I was confused at first — we didn't see the wires, we saw the crib. We were told (the mattress) was normally not there.”

During his testimony, however, Griffin said the adopted son answered negatively when asked if he knew the difference between the truth and a lie. According to Griffin, when he asked the child if his name was Police Chief Griffin, he gave his own name.

The child also said a red ball was blue when asked what color it was during the interview, Griffin testified on Monday.

On cross examination, Mavris asked Griffin to relate what Edwards’ 11-year-old son told officers during the CAST interview. Griffin testified that the 11-year-old said the mattress was in the crib “more often” and the only time it was taken out of the crib was to clean it.

Griffin further testified that there was a see-through sheet top covering the mattress and that he saw evidence of skin on the wires and zip ties underneath the mattress.

“We seized the entire crib, sheets and everything,” Griffin told Mavris. “We’re working with DOJ to analyze the zip ties for DNA.”

On Wednesday, Cooper reiterated much of the conversation Edwards’ adopted son had with law enforcement when they served the search warrant on the defendant’s home on Nov. 8. The defendant wasn’t home at the time, Cooper testified. Edwards was at UCSF Children’s Hospital with the alleged victim when officers served the search warrant, according to Cooper.

Cooper testified that during the search, he spoke with the 18-year-old babysitter, who said the alleged victim eats a lot but doesn’t absorb what he eats. Cooper testified that the babysitter, who is at Edwards’ home during the day nearly every day, sneaks out of the crib to steal food and is put on time out.

According to Cooper’s testimony, the babysitter said a net on the crib is meant to keep the alleged victim from sneaking out of it. On a video clip from Cooper’s body camera of the officer’s Nov. 8 interview, the babysitter said the alleged victim will “eat whatever he’ll find and when he goes outside he drinks water out of puddles.”

During his testimony, Cooper also said officers found a Smith and Wesson firearm and ammunition in an unlocked nightstand in the master bedroom. A blowtorch was found on a dresser in the master bedroom along with two methamphetamine pipes, Cooper testified.

One of the pipes was fashioned out of a lightbulb with the base hollowed out and the bulb end burned, Cooper said. Cooper testified that a crystalline substance found in the lightbulb tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine.

During his testimony, Del Norte County District Attorney Investigator AC Field recounted a Dec. 2, 2019 interview he had with Victoria Schaub, a special education preschool teacher at Mary Peacock Elementary School.

According to Field, the alleged victim had been Schaub’s student since March 2018 and Edwards had indicated that the boy had been diagnosed with autism by a doctor who worked with the Redwood Regional Center. However, Field testified, Schaub told him that the alleged victim didn’t display any of the behaviors commonly associated with autism. The alleged victim maintained good eye contact, liked to snuggle and was very loving, Schaub told Field, according to the investigator’s testimony.

There were also concerns about the alleged victim’s attendance at preschool, Field testified. After reviewing attendance records, Field testified that the alleged victim missed 20 out of 51 days of school from March 2018 through June 2018.

From August 2018 through June 2019, the alleged victim was absent 47 days out of 142 days, Field testified. Between August 2019 to the present day, the alleged victim missed 27 out of 50 days, though Field said some of those missed days were due to the victim’s hospitalization in Oakland.

“(Schaub) said she talked to (Edwards) many times and always tried to get medical notes, but was never able to get a doctor’s slip,” Field said. “Schaub said he was a loving sweet boy that she very much was obviously attached to. According to her, he always wanted to be with her.”

Field said Schaub told him that the alleged victim also ate a lot, to the point where he stole food and when he came back from his absences, he was withdrawn.

According to Field, Schaub told him she became worried about the alleged victim’s health when he returned to school from summer vacation in August 2019 and took photographs to document his appearance. His hair had become sparse and thin and he had lost weight, Field testified.

Field testified that when she brought up her concern with the defendant, Edwards told Schaub that the alleged victim pulls his own hair and teeth out. But Schaub said she never observed those behaviors in the alleged victim.

Schaub took more photographs of the alleged victim on Sept. 3, 2019. Submitted to the court as evidence, the photos show bruising around the victim’s elbow and injuries to his lower back. Field said when Schaub brought her concerns up with the defendant, Edwards said another foster child at her daughter’s house hit the alleged victim with a bungee cord. Schaub told the defendant she’d have to report the injuries to Child Welfare Services, Field testified.

“Miss Schaub filled out a suspected child abuse report on Sept. 3 and hand delivered it to CPS on Sept. 3 and included the color photos,” Field testified. “CWS got back to her with no findings of child abuse.”

On cross examination, Mavris asked Field if he interviewed anyone other than Schaub. Field replied that he had verbal and email communication with several representatives from Child Welfare Services. Mavris asked Field if someone at Child Welfare Services looked at the photograph of the victim’s back. Field answered yes.

Mavris also questioned Field’s report based on his interview with Schaub when she indicated that she noticed an above average level of bumps and bruises on the alleged victim, but observed him having “below average motor skills and believed these to be accidental (injuries).”

Field said Schaub was distraught during their interview and took a lot of the blame on herself, saying that her belief that the victim’s motor skills being below average were an explanation for his injuries.

“She readily admits she believed everything Ms. Edwards said to her,” Field told Mavris. “August 2019 was when she thought this was going in a different direction.”

When he made his decision, Follett initially disputed Zocchi’s argument that Edwards should be charged with torture.

Citing a 2016 ruling in a Fourth Appellate District Court case in California, People v. Erik Austin Flores, Zocchi argued that the deliberate act of starving a child for the purposes of behavior modification could be seen as torture.

Zocchi cited the UCSF doctor's testimony of the alleged victim's weight when he presented at Sutter Coast Hospital on Nov. 7 as well as Griffin and Cooper's testimony that the victim would be punished for stealing food.

After reading the decision in the People v. Flores, Edwards’ attorney, George Mavris, said that while the decision confirmed that starvation as a form of punishment could be considered torture, but argued that the definition “bootstraps” the act of starvation because “the act of starvation would always equal torture.”

Follett, however, disagreed. 

“We had Dr. Crawford saying there was an indication of abuse going on and the person responsible for them, in the doctor’s opinion, is responsible for the condition of the child overall,” Follett said before allowing the trial to move forward. “Overall the child has been badly abused, that’s for sure.”


Follett set Edwards’ arraignment for Dec. 31.

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