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Jennifer Schooler gets maximum sentence for killing boyfriend's 3-year-old son

Worst of the worst offenders, judge says
Posted at 3:55 PM, May 09, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-09 19:53:26-04

BATESVILLE, Ind. – The judge called Jennifer Schooler the worst of the worst offenders for killing her boyfriend’s 3-year-old in 2015.

The prosecutor said Schooler tortured the boy to death and deserved the maximum sentence she got Tuesday – 67.5 years in prison.

“I can’t say that he is better off where he is, but he was certainly in a living hell for the last three months of his life living with Jennifer Schooler,” Ripley County Prosecutor Ric Hertel said.

Schooler “basically beat him and tortured him, isolated him, locked him and his 10-year-old sister in a room where they couldn’t eat or use the bathroom," Hertel said.

A jury convicted Schooler of murder for causing abusive head trauma to the boy. Doctors say he had brain hemorrhaging, multiple bruises on his body and several broken bones. She also was found guilty of neglect.

During sentencing, the judge cited Schooler’s lack of remorse and failure to accept responsibility for the boy’s death.

The boy’s father, who is facing neglect charges, told WCPO that some bit of justice was served by the harsh sentence.

Schooler called 911 on Aug. 12 and reported a medical emergency with the boy, according to authorities. But police said Schooler gave conflicting accounts to the 911 operator. She later admitted that she pushed boy into a coffee table and he hit his head, according to police.

Doctors found bruises to the head, leg, buttocks and arm, retinal hemorrhages, a subdural hematoma, rib fracture and fractures to a finger and thumb, according to a hospital review.

First responders revived the boy in the Batesville apartment, then took him to Margaret Mary Community Hospital. He was flown to University of Cincinnati Medical Center but died there two days later.