A Duchesne County woman who previously pleaded guilty to killing her 2-year-old foster son — and received a one-year prison sentence that outraged prosecutors — has now been charged with physically abusing her adopted 8-year-old son, court records show.
Lisa Jo Vanderlinden, 46, has been charged in 8th District Court with child abuse with injury, a class A misdemeanor, for intentionally or knowingly inflicting “serious physical injury” to a child.
According to a probable cause statement, on Oct. 18, the Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office received a report that an 8-year-old boy in Vanderlinden’s care had been abused by his adoptive mother. When the boy was interviewed, the statement said, he said Vanderlinden had slapped him so hard that it “left a red mark on his face for two days.” He said he had been hit “more than once” between Jan. 1 and Oct. 18 this year.
Vanderlinden “denied this happened” when she was interviewed by police, according to the probable cause statement. She was released without bail after agreeing to appear at all court hearings, not commit any criminal offenses, report any change of address or phone number, contact pretrial services once a month and pay a fee of $20 a month, court records said.
The release order doesn’t include any restrictions about being around children. The court documents do not indicate whether the boy remains in her custody.
In July 2020, Vanderlinden pleaded guilty to first-degree felony child abuse homicide in the death of 2-year-old Lucas Call, who died while in her care in August 2018. A former nurse who had cared for about 40 foster children, Vanderlinden said she did nothing to hurt her foster child.
“I loved him very, very much,” she said at the time, asking a judge for leniency in her sentence.
Prosecutors with the Utah attorney general’s office alleged that Vanerlinden beat the boy to death. An autopsy report showed he died from “blunt force injuries” and had abrasions all over his body, court records state.
She had initially been charged with aggravated murder, but pleaded guilty to child abuse homicide, according to her plea agreement, and was sentenced to one year in jail and 14 years of probation.
Prosecutors had asked for a five-year prison sentence, and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes expressed outrage at her sentence, calling it “beyond disappointing” and “a travesty.”
When 8th District Judge Samuel Chiara announced Vanerlinden’s sentence, he said his hands were tied and that he couldn’t send her to prison because she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. He called the plea deal “perplexing,” adding that he had hoped the case would have gone to trial.
“I hope that justice has been served,” Chiara said at the time. “It’s the best I can do, as a human being, in this case.”
In a statement released later, Reyes both criticized the sentence and disputed the judge’s reasoning: “As prosecutors, we achieved in the plea deal just what we would have at trial, a first-degree felony minus the cost of trial and without having to traumatize other children as witnesses,” the statement read. “The plea deal in no way limited the court’s power to sentence in a way that would serve justice.”
It’s unclear when Vanderlinden is next scheduled to appear in court in the child abuse case. Court records did not list a date as of Monday.
