Authorities say Benjamin’s body was moved before the 911 call, turning an accidental infant death into a broader criminal investigation.
NAMPA, Idaho — When police arrived at a Nampa home before dawn on Dec. 16, 2025, they found a 12-day-old boy in a bassinet inside the house, but investigators later concluded that the newborn had died somewhere else: in a travel trailer behind the residence.
That movement from one location to another became a defining fact in the prosecution of Benjamin’s parents. Investigators said the transfer changed the scene before authorities could examine the place where the infant actually died. His mother, Allysen Armenta, 28, ultimately pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child and entered Alford pleas to two felony evidence charges. The child’s father, Brian Lemke, 32, separately admitted delaying notification of the death and moving the body. The coroner, meanwhile, classified Benjamin’s death as an accidental suffocation rather than a homicide.
Canyon County officials reconstructed the night more precisely when Lemke was sentenced in July. The coroner determined that Benjamin died sometime between 11 p.m. Dec. 15 and 2 a.m. Dec. 16 while co-sleeping with his parents in a bed inside the trailer. Investigators have not publicly assigned direct responsibility for the suffocation to one parent. The official finding that the manner of death was accidental is significant because the felony cases against Armenta and Lemke do not amount to findings that either parent intentionally killed their son.
After the baby was discovered dead, investigators said, Lemke carried him from the trailer into the main residence on the property. Prosecutors said Lemke swaddled Benjamin and placed him in a bassinet in the living room. At roughly 3:30 a.m., he called 911 and requested that a coroner be sent to the residence. That sequence gave first responders a scene that was different from the one where the death occurred. Prosecutors later argued that removing Benjamin from the trailer destroyed the original scene and created a second location that investigators then had to untangle.
Armenta did not meet officers at the house when they arrived. Authorities said she remained in the travel trailer for about an hour and a half before police found her there. At the time, she also had an unrelated warrant from an earlier case. Early police statements said officers first encountered Lemke at the house and later determined through further investigation that the infant had died at a different location on the same property. That discovery shifted the case from an emergency response to an inquiry into both the death and the parents’ actions afterward.
Investigators also examined communications between the parents and their initial descriptions of what happened. Early court reporting said the couple had presented a version in which Benjamin had been found unresponsive in a bassinet. Later evidence led authorities to conclude he had actually died in the trailer. Those discrepancies helped support allegations that evidence had been concealed and that the true circumstances were not immediately reported. Prosecutors did not need to prove an intentional killing to pursue crimes based on delaying notification, moving evidence or altering the scene.
Both parents initially faced multiple charges, including injury to a child, evidence destruction, failure to notify or delay notification of a death, and obstruction-related allegations. Their cases later took different paths. Lemke resolved his case first. During an April plea hearing, he admitted under questioning from Judge Thomas Whitney that he willfully failed to promptly notify authorities of the child’s death and moved Benjamin away from the place where the death had happened. Other charges against him, including injury to a child and an obstruction count, were dismissed under his agreement.
Armenta appeared headed for a different deal when she entered court July 30. The contemplated agreement called for her to plead guilty to injury to a child and failure to notify authorities, with other counts expected to be dismissed. But the hearing changed course while Whitney was asking her to establish why she was guilty. According to courtroom reporting, Armenta discussed sleeping with Benjamin in the same bed, the poor condition of the trailer and the fact that she had a cellphone available when authorities could have been called. Whitney stopped the hearing, conferred with attorneys and later said a legal issue required more research.
The revised agreement presented in August placed greater emphasis on the altered scene. Armenta pleaded guilty to one count of felony injury to a child and entered Alford pleas to two felony counts involving destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence. An Alford plea results in a conviction without requiring the defendant to expressly admit factual guilt; the defendant acknowledges that prosecutors possess evidence sufficient to obtain a conviction. A remaining misdemeanor obstruction count was dismissed. The new disposition therefore differed materially from the arrangement that had been expected before the July hearing was halted.
The physical condition of the trailer also became part of the case. Prosecutors described it as an uninhabitable environment for a newborn, while reporting from the investigation described trash, food debris, dirt, cigarettes and animal waste inside. The trailer’s owner later told Idaho News 6 that when she regained possession, she found extensive damage and contamination requiring substantial repairs. Those descriptions help explain the basis for the injury-to-a-child allegation, but they do not change the coroner’s determination that Benjamin’s manner of death was accidental.
Lemke was sentenced July 24 to a unified prison term of 15 years, with six years fixed before parole eligibility. At sentencing, he apologized and said he wished he could reverse his actions. His attorney argued that Benjamin died in an accidental co-sleeping incident and asked the court not to treat Lemke as responsible for causing the death. Whitney drew the same distinction from the bench, telling Lemke that the sentence concerned the crimes for which he had been convicted. The judge nevertheless treated the post-death conduct as serious because moving the body and delaying notification interfered with the investigation.
Armenta has not yet received her sentence. The case took another turn Sept. 24 when Whitney allowed her attorney to withdraw. The judge said a newly appointed lawyer could not reasonably be expected to master the case and proceed on the existing sentencing schedule, so he vacated that date and directed the State Public Defender’s Office to appoint replacement counsel. Her guilty and Alford pleas were not withdrawn. A status conference is scheduled for Oct. 1 to address representation and the next procedural steps.
The evidence charges are therefore no longer simply allegations awaiting trial. Armenta has accepted convictions on three felonies, while Lemke is already serving the sentence imposed in his case. What remains unresolved for Armenta is the punishment. The court has not announced a new sentencing date, and the latest hearing did not disturb the coroner’s finding that Benjamin’s suffocation was accidental or identify either parent as having intentionally caused his death.
Author note: Last updated September 30, 2026.