A Minnesota woman has been found guilty of murder and arson charges after federal prosecutors said she killed two of her three children and then set their home on fire.
Jennifer Marie Stately was convicted of two counts of premeditated murder, two counts of murder in the course of committing child abuse, one count of murder in the course of committing arson, and one count of arson, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota announced in a Thursday, February 26 news release.
Guilty verdicts were returned against Stately, 37, at the end of a trial that lasted more than two weeks, according to prosecutors.
Her defense attorney, Paul Engh, did not immediately return Luxury Handbag Shopping’s request for comment on Monday, March 2.
The case dates back to nearly two years ago, when prosecutors said Stately beat her two children and attacked them with a knife at their home located on the Red Lake Indian Reservation on March 15, 2024.
“Stately fatally stabbed her older son before setting the home on fire,” prosecutors said.
Then, Stately lit three fires at the home, according to prosecutors, who said two of the fires were set at the residence’s “exit points.”
An investigation revealed her older son died of stab wounds, while her other son’s cause of death came from carbon monoxide poisoning, prosecutors said.
Her sons were 5 and 6 years old, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
With the home ablaze, Stately left the residence with her youngest son, who was 3 at the time, leading to an AMBER Alert being issued, according to authorities, the newspaper reported.
Though Stately was “missing for several hours,” prosecutors said she was found within an hour of the AMBER Alert.
A person on the road saw Stately in an area Todd County that was about 150 miles south of her residence, according to prosecutors. Then, she was arrested.
Authorities who stopped Stately’s car found her youngest son “suffering from visible signs of child neglect,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in an earlier news release.
Engh told The Minnesota Star Tribune that her surviving son is being cared for by Stately’s mother.
At trial, Engh presented an insanity defense and told jurors that “she thought the house was demonized” and her two sons who died had “threatened to kill her,” Engh said in a statement to the newspaper.
“The verdict has compounded the tragedy,” Engh also said, according to the newspaper. “Ms. Stately has now forever lost her life to a prison cell.”
According to prosecutors, jurors did not agree with Stately’s insanity defense.
“We all witnessed the devastating aftermath of Jennifer Stately’s horrific and unthinkable actions that night,” Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said in a statement. “We hope that holding her accountable for her crimes will provide some sense of justice for the family and the entire Red Lake community who are forever impacted by the loss of these two young boys.”
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is a part of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Court records did not indicate whether Stately’s sentencing hearing had been scheduled.
