This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A 34-year-old Layton man was charged Friday with the death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old boy — which was allegedly triggered by the man's anger over failed potty training — while the girlfriend was charged with giving false information to police during the homicide investigation.

Joshua Scott Schoenenberger is charged in 2nd District Court with first-degree felony aggravated murder — which is a potential death-penalty offense — in the May 11 death of James Sieger Jr.

Schoenenberger is also charged with second-degree felony child abuse.

Charging documents state that Schoenenberger admitted that he intentionally stepped on the boy's stomach — but claimed he did not mean to hurt him — because the boy had angered him by "repeatedly urinating and defecating throughout the house."

The boy's mother, 23-year-old Jasmine Ruth Bridgeman, is charged with second-degree felony obstructing justice.

Charging documents state that during several police interviews, Bridgeman gave detectives "false information regarding material aspects of the investigation."

On May 9, the couple brought the unresponsive boy to the emergency room at Layton's Davis Hospital.

The boy's mother told doctors the child had been left unattended in a bathtub for approximately five minutes and was found facedown in the water.

Doctors, however, found no sign of fluid in the boy's airway, charges state.

The boy was rushed to Primary Children's Hospital, where doctors determined that he had suffered "severe internal injuries" caused by "blunt force trauma" to his abdomen, charges state.

Police have said there were indications that the physical abuse of the boy had been going on for some time.

Before allegedly admitting to stepping on the boy, Schoenenberger told police he had left the child unattended in the bathtub and found him facedown in the water.

Schoenenberger later made "other inconsistent statements" about what happened to the boy, according to charges, including that he was in the shower with the boy when he became upset at the boy and began to squeeze the boy on his abdomen. Schoenenberger then said that he dropped the boy on the floor outside the bathtub and accidentally stepped on the boy's stomach when he was exiting the bathtub, charges state.

Schoenenberger later admitted that he intentionally stepped on the boy's stomach, charges state.

Schoenenberger and Bridgeman — who are being held at the Davis County Jail — are scheduled for initial court appearances Monday in Farmington before Judge John Morris.

At the time of the alleged crime, the couple had lived together for about four months, according to charges.

Schoenenberger was charged with aggravated murder under "Shelby's Law," a 2007 statute that allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty if a child dies during an act of abuse, sexual assault or kidnapping — even if the defendant does not intend to kill the victim.

Prosecutors have until 60 days after the arraignment following a preliminary hearing to declare whether they will seek the death penalty for Schoenenberger.

Since 2007, the accused killers of five Utah children have been charged under Shelby's Law, but none has gone to trial, which has left the statute unproven before a jury and untested by an appellate court.

Among those cases were those of another Layton couple, Nathan and Stephanie Sloop.

Nathan Sloop, 36, last year pleaded guilty and mentally ill to first-degree felony aggravated murder in the 2010 child-abuse death of his stepson, 4-year-old Ethan Stacy. Nathan Sloop was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

The boy's mother, Stephanie Sloop, 32, pleaded guilty to first-degree felony aggravated murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Shelby's Law is named after 10-year-old Shelby Andrews, who died in 2006 in Syracuse after a year of abuse at the hands of her parents.

In an effort to control and discipline the girl, her father and stepmother beat her, forced her to eat her own feces and shut her inside a cramped linen closet.

Ryan and Angela Andrews did not face a potential death sentence because existing law did not allow prosecutors to file aggravated murder charges unless they could prove the parents intended for the girl to die. The couple pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder and were each sentenced to spend 15 years to life in prison.

Public outrage over the case spurred Utah lawmakers to craft Shelby's Law, which was signed into law by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

Utah court records show that Schoenenberger, a California native, pleaded guilty in 2010 to a reduced charge of class A misdemeanor reckless endangerment in return for a second-degree felony count of child abuse being dismissed. The charges stemmed from an incident in which Schoenenberger, reportedly enraged over a water balloon fight, pulled a child off a bicycle, choked him and burned him with a cigarette.

In August 2011, he was sentenced to 120 days in jail, followed by 24 months of probation. He also was ordered to participate in anger counseling.

Schoenenberger also has a history of drug possession and distribution charges, the most recent involving a 2nd District Court appearance on felony heroin possession.