Second son of California mother dies a week after she allegedly tried to drown him and his brother in a canal
A California mother accused of murder after her son was found dead in a canal has lost her second child one week after the elder sibling's demise.
Seven-year-old Jacob Telnas was taken off life support after sustaining a traumatic brain injury when Sherri Telnas allegedly submerged both him and his brother in a canal, Daily Mail reports. Sherri, 45, was arrested eight days ago when her son Jackson Telnas, 12, died of drowning.
Reports said that Sherri was placed in psychiatric custody for attempting to kill Jackson in a Montana river in 2008, However, she was released in 2016.
In the recent incident, the younger sibling's brain was permanently injured due to lack of oxygen when Sherri submerged him in water, the Visalia Times-Delta reports.
Dispatch received a call on June 29 saying Sherri had taken her two boys to a cornfield near Porterville and was "acting strangely." Responding officers discovered the two children unresponsive in an irrigation ditch, and declared Jackson dead at the scene.
According to reports, the children's grandmother desperately tried to rescue the boys by administering CPR.
Authorities said Jackson had fully recovered after his mother first tried to end his life in the Clark Fork River river in Montana back in 2008.
Officials said Sherri was drenched from head to toe as she carried the boy, then just 10 months old, into a hospital saying she had tried to drown him after "bad thoughts or voices" instructed her to do it.
Sheriff Mike Boone revealed that Telnas was sentenced in 2009 to the custody of Montana health officials for 10 years due to a history of mental illness after she pleaded no contest to two counts of felony criminal endangerment.
The sheriff said Jackson was living with his father at the time. However, Telnas later gained custody of him as part of her divorce.
During her treatment with a psychiatrist, a judge found her relationship with her son appeared "to be very loving" and that she was successfully holding down a job.
According to District Judge Ed McLean, the psychiatrist "had no concern about her ability to parent and testified that he sees no risk factors to indicate that she may de-compensate in her emotional wellness."
Furthermore, the boy's father Jacob Telnas did not argue testimony that claimed he was living with friends unemployed, smoked marijuana daily, and regularly drank alcohol, the judge noted.
But Sherri later got back together with her ex-husband, and Jacob, his father's namesake, was born in 2012.
For a while, the couple lived together in California. Furthermore, Telnas had been staying alone with her sons for almost a year. She was eventually released from Montana health officials' supervision in 2016.
Friends paid tribute on a fundraising page, describing Jackson as "a sweet, funny, smart and kind 12-year-old who was so very loved by his family," and will be "missed enormously."
Sherri has been charged with drowning Jackson and will most likely face additional homicide charges in connection with Jacob's death.
Anyone with information about Saturday's incident is urged to contact the Tulare County Sheriff's Office Investigations Unit Det. Miguel Franco or Sergeant Gary Marks at (559) 802-9563 or (800) 808-0488.