Woman Claims Son's Dad Ran Him Over, Before Shocking Truth of What Really Happened Is Discovered

When police came to the home of baby Aaryan's father, Robert Ortez, in Bemidji, Minnesota, they found him there, but they did not find the vehicle Aaryan's mother said he'd been driving when he hit their baby.

According to court documents, Larena Jackson, 31, contacted police on August 19, 2023, with a report that her child had been run over by a car that had subsequently left, according to Valley News Live at the time.

Deputies with the Cass County Sheriff's Office began life-saving efforts on the scene before Aaryan was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Court documents seen by the news outlet, as reported in February 2025, detailed that the baby had a laceration on the top of his head, on his forehead, under his left eye, and a split lip. The lacerations were described as deep and actively bleeding when the report was written.

Medical professionals advised authorities that the injuries were fatal and the toddler would likely die within a few days. On August 24, 2023 at 8:25 p.m., Aaryan suffered a cardiac arrest event, believed related to the injuries he'd suffered five days prior, and died.

According to a press release from investigators in 2023, it was believed the child's injuries were the result of blunt force trauma through suspected child abuse and not, in fact, from being struck or run over by a car, as Jackson had reported.

"The cop came to my house, and said your son has been in an accident," Ortez told Valley News Live in February, recalling the day he'd found out about his son's injuries.

Jackson initially told police that she and Ortez had been in a fight that night and that Ortez had taken the child in his vehicle earlier that evening. She said he later contacted her and told her he was leaving the toddler in the road down the street.

She purportedly told police believed it was there that Ortez had run the child over and left him. Jackson even gave police a description of Ortez's car. But she didn't know the truth.

"It didn’t make sense," Ortez told Valley News Live. "I had a car in the shop that I supposedly ran over Aaryan with, but I had a different car I was driving."

On top of that, he'd been at his home at the time of this supposed argument with Jackson, and had, in fact, not been in the Cass Lake area recently at all, according to the investigation.

When asked to see her phone log to verify that Ortez had called her, Jackson told police that her phone was dead when he called.

"He called me and I told him my phone was dead," she told police, per the Brainerd Dispatch. She then said it might have happened on her tablet, but it was broken and didn't receive calls.

Police reported multiple stories from Jackson as to what happened, including her eventual recorded statement, where she said she'd been carrying her son down the street after picking him up where his father had abandoned him and she had fallen over, causing the injuries.

Police stated that the baby was wrapped in a towel and Jackson was resistant to let them close enough to see him. But they did notice a seeming lack of blood, dry or wet, anywhere on his body.

The responding deputy did notice multiple lacerations on his head that were actively bleeding, per the Dispatch, noting in his report that it looked as if they had been cleaned up prior to his arrival. Jackson claimed to have taken him inside in an attempt to clean his injuries in the bathtub.

Investigators spoke with Jackson's mother, who told them she'd been staying with her daughter for several days but had left around 5 p.m. on August 19, 2023, due to Jackson's drinking, rudeness, and confrontational behavior, per the Dispatch. She also told him Aaryan's father had not been to the home or contacted Jackson in three weeks.

Police searched Jackson's home, and there uncovered what they believe truly happened, according to their documentation. Inside the house, investigators reported finding blood in multiple areas in a bedroom, along with a great deal of blood on a mattress. This mattress was obscured under a box spring, as if it had been placed there to cover up the blood.

They also found two indentations in the sheetrock of the bedroom wall, per their report, which were consistent with the shape of a toddler's head. Those indentations also had blood splatter, leading investigators to believe Jackson had caused her son's injuries by smashing his head into this wall.

Found hiding inside a cabinet in the bathroom of a friend's house, per the Dispatch, Jackson was arrested on August 22, 2023, two days before her son's death in the hospital.

Jackson was hit with felony charges of 2nd degree murder, 1st degree assault, malicious punishment of a child under four years, and a misdemeanor charge of fleeing a peace officer.

On Monday, March 24, Jackson was sentenced to 210 months in prison, or 17.5 years, with credit for 581 days served, according to ABC affiliate KSTP. This after she pleaded guilty to one count of 2nd degree unintentional murder on February 10. With that plea, the other charges against her were dismissed.

Unfortunately for Ortez, and other loved ones, Jackson's guilty plea and sentencing don't come with any answers as to exactly what happened -- and perhaps more importantly, why.

"I still don’t know, to this day, what really happened because she isn’t saying anything," Ortez told Valley News Live. "I'm still trying to figure out why she did it. I don't know why or nothing."

In her petition, Jackson stated that she was "so under the influence of drugs." She wrote, "I didn’t know what I was doing at the time of the crime and am entering this plea on Norgaard basis."

A Norgaard plea in Minnesota is a provision that allows defendants to admit to a crime, acknowledge the strength of the prosecutions' case against them, while maintaining they have no recollection of any specific facts due to intoxication or otherwise-caused memory loss.

Ortez, though, isn't buying that Jackson doesn't remember. "She wasn't doing no drugs. She was drinking, but she ain't have no outbursts like she said in court," he said. "I didn't see her get violent at all. I don't know where she's coming from saying she had blackouts."

While Jackson was hit with what appeared to be the maximum possible sentence for the crime, Ortez still doesn't think it's enough. "She deserves life in prison," he said.