9-year-old Pa. boy found dead in a bathtub had head-to-toe injuries: detective

By John Beauge | Special to PennLive

LOCK HAVEN – The 9-year-old boy found dead in a bathtub in Lock Haven in November had injuries all over his body.

That was the testimony Thursday during the preliminary hearing for the lad’s aunt, Jamie Lynne Jackson, 36, who was ordered held for court on homicide and related charges.

City police Detective Richard Simpson detailed the bruises, cuts and other injuries an autopsy revealed were all over Anson Landon Mitchell Stover’s body.

He had black eyes and a cut on his penis, the detective said, adding that the boy’s fingers were purple.

The preliminary autopsy report lists two causes of death: blunt-force injuries to the head and multiple blunt-force injuries in general, the detective testified.

Additional tests are being conducted to determine the extent of the brain injuries, he said.

Stover weighed 54 pounds, 17 less than he did in March, the detective said.

He recounted two interviews of Jackson in which she claimed that with the exception of scratches on Stover’s arms she was unaware of the injuries despite saying she found him in his room naked.

Jackson maintained she found her nephew on Nov. 28 in his room with tape wrapped around him that she cut off and then bathed and dressed him, he said. The autopsy did not reveal any tape or tape residue, he testified.

Stover did not respond when she placed him in the tub but Jackson claimed she thought he was faking because he had done that previously, Simpson said she told him.

The arrest affidavit states Jackson told investigators that Stover was unresponsive but breathing when she placed him in the tub.

She admitted finding a little blood in his room that she removed by shampooing the rug, he said.

The body was discovered after Officer Andrew Fisher went to Jackson’s apartment in the 600 block of East Bald Eagle Street after receiving a phone call from her father, who was traveling to Lock Haven from his home in New York.

Hugh Jackson said his daughter was hysterical. she said that she did not know what to do but threatened to kill herself if police showed up, the officer testified.

Stover was lying in a fetal position in the tub wearing clean dry clothes, Fisher said. He noticed bruises on the back of the boy’s head, he said.

Stover was one of six children living in the apartment but was the only boy, Simpson said.

Jackson had gained temporary custody of Stover and his three sisters three years ago when their mother died. The other two girls are Jackson’s.

The girls had no signs of injuries except for a possible cigarette burn mark on one, Simpson said.

Jackson, the lone adult in the low-income housing unit, was the only smoker, the detective said.

District Judge Keith Kibler rejected assistant public defender Matthew A. Johnson’s argument that the prosecution failed to produce evidence linking his client to Stover’s injuries.

In his closing argument, Clinton County District Attorney David Strouse noted Jackson made no effort to check on Stover in the tub nor did she seek medical help.

She formulated a story that Stover was self-destructive and then tried to conceal a murder weapon by washing his clothes and cleaning his room, he argued.

Besides homicide, Jackson is charged with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children, tampering with evidence, abuse of corpse and concealing the death of a child. She is jailed without bail.

Strouse would not say if he plans to seek the death penalty but acknowledged there are aggravating circumstances that would permit him to do so.