Jason Getzfreid

As Park County District Court Judge Bill Simpson considered the appropriate sentence to issue in connection with the 2020 murder of a Powell infant, he observed that the criminal justice system can be “woefully lacking.”

“This is one of those cases,” Simpson told the defendant, 29-year-old Jason Getzfreid, and others gathered in his Cody courtroom. “We have a death penalty, we have life imprisonment. But many times the damage is so horrific, so horrendous, so long-lasting that none of these can ever provide any type of peace or satisfaction to society.”

Ultimately, Simpson decided to accept the sentence proposed by the Park County Attorney’s Office and Getzfreid’s defense attorney: 30 to 35 years in prison for pleading guilty to a felony count of second-degree murder. 

The case stems from August 2021, when Getzfreid shook his 4-month-old daughter Rune in a frustrated attempt to stop her crying. Child safety experts warn to never shake a baby — and Getzfreid inflicted serious injuries to the child’s brain, leading to her death a few days later.

A tearful Getzfreid said Wednesday that he never intended to harm his daughter.

“I love her with every fiber and breath I have inside me,” Getzfreid told the court, saying no sentence would come close to the pain of learning that his actions led to his daughter’s death.

“... I’m never gonna forgive myself,” he said. “And I’ll hate myself for the rest of my life.”

The Park County Attorney’s Office initially charged Getzfreid with first-degree murder, alleging he killed the infant while committing child abuse; that would have carried a minimum sentence of life in prison. However, prosecutors eventually agreed to reduce it to second-degree murder, which says Getzfreid killed the child “purposely and maliciously, but without premeditation.”

Beyond the murder, Getzfreid agreed to serve an additional two to four years for an unrelated sex crime he committed in mid-2020; in that case, court records say Getzfreid took indecent liberties with a teenager.

All told, Getzfreid received a 32- to 39-year sentence.

Judge Simpson expressed serious reluctance in accepting the deal, saying if it were up to him, he’d impose “a far greater sentence.”

“Your actions have created total chaos, madness, mayhem, sadness, great grief,” the judge told Getzfreid. “I don’t know that you understand what you’ve done, sir, I don’t know if you understand the gravity of your activities, but it’s horrendous.”

However, Simpson went along with the recommendation, in part because the victims supported it and wanted to have some closure.

The child’s mother, Kate Getzfreid, said she couldn’t capture the heartache that she and her family have been put through. 

“My world exploded into a billion pieces, and some will never be put back into place,” she said.

She said the ordeal has included nightmares, people in the community gossiping about and staring at her and a hole in her family’s life that will never be filled.

“Now I get to watch close friends’ children grow, and feel happiness and deep despair all at once,” Kate said. “Rune should be here learning, growing, laughing and being loved for who she is. My baby should be turning 2 in a matter of a week.”

The crime

According to Getzfreid’s testimony and court records, the infant became upset early on the morning of Aug. 22, 2021. Getzfreid took over caring for her around 5:40 a.m., when his wife left for work and he was unable to calm the child down. 

Getzfreid said he eventually realized the infant was upset because she needed a new diaper. However, “before I went to check her diaper, I picked her up and asked her what her issue was,” Getzfreid said through tears, “and I shook her.”

The child then began crying even harder. He said he put her down on a couch, but she fell off and became unresponsive. He then “immediately” took her to Powell Valley Hospital, but medical personnel there and later at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City were unable to save her life.

“I never meant to hurt her,” Getzfreid said, but experts for both the state and defense confirmed it was his shaking that caused the fatal injuries to the infant.

Simpson called the baby’s death “just an inexcusable tragedy,” noting Getzfreid had many places he could have contacted for help if he was struggling to care for the child.

In questioning the plea deal, Simpson told the defendant that a “totally innocent person who never even had a chance at life, died because of your incompetence or willful indifference.”

However, Getzfreid’s court-appointed defense attorney, Tim Blatt, argued the plea agreement was appropriate.

Not first-degree murder

Experts say instances of shaken babies “are cases where the parents love their children,” Blatt said. “They don’t understand a lot of times that when they get frustrated, and they shake their child, the danger that they’re putting the child in.”

Such cases typically occur early in the morning or late at night, he said, when parents are tired.

“It’s certainly no justification for the conduct that caused the death,” Blatt said. “But it is different than what you normally see in a murder of the first degree …”

Blatt specifically sought to distinguish the case from the one being brought against Carolyn Aune and Moshe Williams of Cody, who are charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 2021 death of Williams’ 2-year-old daughter; that toddler is alleged to have suffered abuse over a lengthy period of time, ultimately dying from what prosecutors say was a forceful blow to her abdomen. Aune’s trial is set to begin Monday in Park County District Court.

Those facts differ from Getzfreid’s case, in which there was no intent to abuse the infant, Blatt argued.

Sex crimes

Simpson also expressed concerns about the sentence for Getzfreid’s 2020 offense of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

Charging documents indicate that, in August 2020, Getzfreid took “immodest, immoral or indecent liberties” with a girl who was either 15 or 16; he was 26. 

Getzfreid was arrested in October 2020 and released on bond a couple weeks later. In 2021, the Park County Attorney’s Office and Blatt agreed on the two- to four-year prison term. However, the child died in August and Getzfreid was rearrested weeks before the sentence was finalized.

“The state did attempt to, I guess, withdraw that agreement given the subsequent events,” Park County Attorney Victim/Witness Program Coordinator Dave Sauceda said Wednesday, “but I believe we were bound by that agreement.”

The victims in that case declined to make a statement to the court, other than indicating they supported the deal; Getzfreid offered no comment, either, choosing to plead no contest rather than guilty.

Records show it was not Getzfreid’s first sex offense.

In 2012, while Getzfreid was in his teens, he was convicted of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor for having sexual contact with a child who was under the age of 13. A year later, he was convicted of a new felony for failing to comply with the state’s sex offender registration requirements. Getzfreid wound up going to prison in late 2013 and was released in April 2017.

“Apparently, that prison term didn’t do much to remedy future behavior, did it?” Simpson asked.

“I take that as your opinion, sir,” Getzfreid responded.

However, he later offered that he’d failed to complete a sex offender program during his earlier stint in prison. This time around, Getzfreid said he intends to “do everything I can to complete it and try to figure out if there’s anything that I need to work on, anything that needs to be changed within me.”

“Well, clearly something needs to be changed within you. No doubt about it,” Simpson responded.

Seeking closure

During the more than hour-and-a-half-long hearing, the judge frequently referenced the far-reaching impacts of Getzfreid’s crimes and how there would never be any true “closure.”

“That’s a euphemism, which doesn’t mean much in my book, because there are certain crimes you just don’t walk away from,” he said. The judge said he hoped Getzfreid thinks about his actions “every single waking moment, when you’re in that cell at the Wyoming Department of Corrections.”

The infant’s mother, Kate, made similar comments, saying she hopes Getzfreid is haunted by his actions.

“There are plenty of things I want to say but none of them are appropriate or sufficient,” she said. “The sentence you will receive will have to suffice.”

Although the mother didn’t request any restitution, Judge Simpson ordered Getzfreid to put his prison earnings toward a cemetery memorial and marker for Rune. The judge told Kate that he hoped the marker would provide a place “where people can go and take some solace, that this beautiful, bright little creature, taken from this earth far too young, will always be remembered and cherished.”