Family of murdered Arizona boy can seek restitution for his lost wages, court rules
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that family members of a murdered boy can go after restitution for his future lost wages.
The ruling was centered around 6-year-old Jason Hester, who was abused and murdered by his aunt Lillian Hester in 2015. Lillian was sentenced to life in prison in 2018. The boy’s half-sister wanted $3.3 million for his future lost wages paid to the estate.
While lower courts said the half-sister’s pursuit of future lost wages was too weakly connected as restitution and not covered under Arizona law, the Supreme Court disagreed in a unanimous decision. Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer, who wrote the decision, said loss of future income can be recovered by the family if it flows ”directly from the defendant’s criminal conduct” and not based on speculation. Since the boy’s death directly ended his ability to make any money as an adult, those losses are recoverable as restitution, Timmer said.
However, the Supreme Court didn’t rule on how much the family should receive and sent the case back to a trial court to find out if there’s enough evidence to determine the boy’s lost wages without basing it on “conjecture and speculation alone.”
When the case was submitted to the lower courts, the defendants had an expert say that the value of Jason’s lost wages ranged between $153,712 and $919,598, quite lower than the half-sister’s claim of $3.3 million.
Child abuse turns into murder
The investigation into the death of Jason Hester started in June 2015, when he was found not moving in Lillian Hester’s home just outside of Ash Fork. The 6-year-old died at the hospital.
An autopsy showed the boy weighed only 29 pounds and was dehydrated, had multiple bruises and cuts. A year later, Lillian Hester, who was the primary caretaker, was indicted on first-degree murder and child abuse charges. The boy’s maternal grandmother, Lenda Hester, her boyfriend, Kimmy Wilson and Lillian’s live-in boyfriend, Jason Conlee, were indicted on negligent homicide and child abuse charges.
A jury convicted Lillian Hester of murder and child abuse in 2018. She was sentenced to 17 years for the child abuse charge and life in prison for the murder. According to the Arizona Daily Sun, the judge couldn’t believe the boy’s broken arm didn’t heal properly and was overlooked by those responsible for him.
Wilson pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor neglect and received a suspended sentence with one year of unsupervised probation. Conlee received three years of probation in a plea deal. Lenda Hester also agreed to a plea deal, getting four years of probation. All of the sentences started in 2018.
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