Jury acquits Idaho man in daughter’s death by hypothermia
SHOSHONE, Idaho - An Idaho man who let his 11-year-old daughter walk several miles in freezing conditions along an isolated rural highway on Christmas Day was acquitted yesterday of involuntary manslaughter in the girl’s death from hypothermia.
Robert Aragon was also found not guilty of felony injury to a child after the jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about two hours.
Aragon declined to comment after he left the courtroom with relatives including his adult daughter, Teressa, who sat with the girl’s mother and cried as the court clerk read the verdict.
Aragon was accused of letting his daughter Sage and his 12-year-old son, Bear, walk after his car got stuck in a snowdrift.
The children lived with Aragon in Jerome, a tiny community located in the heart of the Idaho dairy industry. He was driving them to see their mother on Christmas morning when the car hit ice and slid into a snowbank.
Bear Aragon said he decided to set out on his own and walk because he wanted to find help for his father, and said his sister decided to go with him.
The youth survived after taking shelter in a single-stall restroom. Sage’s body was found the next morning curled up by a barbed wire fence and covered in snow.
Jurors began deliberating yesterday morning and sat somber as the verdict was read.
The prosecutor and defense attorney in the case both declined to comment, as did the children’s mother, JoLeta Jenks.
Temperatures in the area at the time the girl was missing ranged from 27 degrees above zero to minus 5. Winds were blowing up to 25 miles per hour with snow and ice.
Public defender Patrick McMillen described how Aragon spent between two to three hours digging his car out of the snow after it got stuck, while the children sat in the back seat.
It was the youth, Bear, who decided to start walking, McMillen said, and Aragon was probably suffering from hypothermia, which causes confusion and poor judgment. McMillen detailed how the children were bounding with energy when they left and stopped to make snow angels.
“There’s a difference between a tragedy and a felony,’’ McMillen told jurors.
“There is no one in this courtroom who feels worse about Sage’s death than that man,’’ he said pointing at Aragon.
