OGDEN -- Bail has been set at $250,000 and psychological evaluations have been ordered for Jewell Hendricks, who has been charged with murder in the death of her infant son, Robert.
Hendricks is accused in the killing of one of her 2-month-old twin sons early in the morning of Jan. 24 in the apartment she shares with her husband on the 400 block of 27th Street.
"In my dealings with her, and in talking with family and friends, there are concerns I have with her mental state at the time of the offense," Ryan Bushell, Hendricks' public defender, said Monday of his reasons for requesting the evaluations last week.
"She has had some mental health treatment in the past," Bushell said, declining to offer further details.
A hearing to air the results of the psychological probes by two court-appointed mental health professionals is set for April 1 before 2nd District Judge Michael DiReda.
On the chance Hendricks makes bail, DiReda has issued a no-contact order, and a juvenile court judge is banning the mother from seeing her other son.
The state Division of Child and Family Services initially took custody of the child, officials said, and Hendricks is allowed to have contact with the foster parents. Family members have volunteered to care for the child, a process screened in juvenile court.
"From the state's perspective, we don't want her to be around anyone's children," Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said of the 25-year-old Hendricks. He said her bail is commensurate with the allegations.
On Jan. 24, Hendricks called 911 to frantically report her baby had stopped breathing. Ogden police said her husband is believed to have been asleep at the time, but was awakened shortly afterward.
Paramedics transported the infant by ambulance, but he died on the way to the hospital.
Hospital officials reported that the child suffered a skull fracture, a broken collarbone, bleeding of the eye and bruising to the head and arms.
Frustrated at the infant's crying, police said, Hendricks confessed she "murdered" her son by holding a sleeping bag over his face and "bear-hugging" him until he stopped crying. Autopsy results received Jan. 26 corroborate her statements, according to police.
Hendricks had initially been held without bail since her Jan. 24 arrest.
At a status conference Thursday, Bushell asked for formal setting of bail and requested $50,000. Standard bail for a first- degree felony is $20,000.
"But like any murder, we don't see it as a standard bail case," said Deputy Weber County Attorney Dean Saunders.
At the Thursday hearing, he requested bail be set at $250,000, which was granted by DiReda.
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