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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Oroville couple convicted in death of toddler

An Oroville-area couple were convicted Thursday in the death of their 22-month-old son.

Jurors in the 12-day Okanogan County Superior Court trial deliberated more than eight hours to conclude that Jon Gabriel DeVon, 27, was guilty of homicide by abuse while his wife, Yolanda Eleuteria DeVon, 21, committed second-degree manslaughter in the beating death a year ago of Aden R. Roth-Valdovinos.

The child was Yolanda DeVon’s by a previous relationship. The DeVons married in October 2004, and the child died at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane on Feb. 1.

Dr. Greg MacDonald, a pediatric neurologist, said it was the worst case of a battered child he had seen in many years, according to court documents. He and several other specialists agreed the injuries could not have been caused by falls and other accidents as the boy’s mother claimed.

Among other injuries, including a burned cheek, MacDonald said he found a human bite mark on the toddler’s left cheek and the back of his left calf.

Jon DeVon declined to talk to investigators, but his wife attributed the head injury that killed her son to falling off a stack of wood his stepfather was cutting with several other men. The other woodcutters told authorities the child was not present when they gathered firewood.

Yolanda DeVon worked as a nurse’s aide at North Valley Hospital in Tonasket, but didn’t take the child there for treatment until his breathing became labored and raspy after what she said were two or three days of illness. DeVon’s co-workers said the toddler was in cardiac arrest when he arrived and he looked as though he had been in a traffic accident if not severely beaten.

Although represented by separate lawyers, the DeVons were tried together on the same charges: first-degree murder through “extreme indifference” or, as an alternative, homicide by abuse. The charges are equivalent except that the first-degree murder charge carries a minimum sentence of 20 years without credit for good behavior.

Jurors were free to convict Yolanda DeVon of second-degree manslaughter because it is a “lesser, included” component of murder.

Visiting Chelan County Judge Lesley Allan is to pass sentence on Feb. 16.