August 2 – Becoming a foster parent was all Nicholas and Jaquelynn Schmitt wanted in June 2021. Fostering was their “divine calling,” the young couple believed, after being unable to have a child of their own due to infertility.
Nicholas was an Albuquerque police officer and Jaquelynn was a homemaker who was involved in her church and looking forward to becoming a mother.
Then something went terribly wrong. And a 2-year-old foster child paid the price.
On Friday, a district judge in Albuquerque sentenced Jacquelynn to three years in prison for abusing the first child the state Department of Children, Youth and Families placed in her care after she was licensed to become a foster parent.
After four months in the Schmidts’ home in 2021, the child showed signs of broken ribs and head-to-toe injuries, including trauma to his genitals — abuse that Jacquelynn attributed to the boy having injured himself.
Evidence shows she called CYFD at least five times between July and November 2021 to report his “self-harm.” A prosecutor on Friday called the behavior a “malicious” attempt to cover up Jacquelynn’s abuse.
Jacquelynn, 29, burst into tears as Judge Stanley Whitaker handed down her sentence. Her husband, who was fired from the Albuquerque Police Department and is facing similar charges, began to sob as he sat in the back of the courtroom.
“I think that was a fair punishment for B—,” Whitaker said, referring to the child. “He deserves some level of responsibility.”
Assistant District Attorney Savannah Brandenburg-Koch argued for the maximum sentence of 10 years.
“What is so deeply disturbing about this case is that … they had every opportunity to give this child back,” she said. Jaquelynn “did not have to hit this child.”
Whitaker said the abuse was not a “one-time event where she just lost her mind.”
“I find it cruel that the way you punish this child for any behavioral response, not just pushing or hitting or spanking, you’re going to the most sensitive part of this child’s body to create more pain and suffering,” Whitaker said. “I just can’t fathom it.
“It’s not just a terrible situation. It’s criminal.”
Her lawyer, Ian King, said his client was remorseful and noted that his client “will never age again” because of her conviction.
Part of the hearing was closed to the public as Jacquelynn’s mental health issues and childhood trauma were discussed. But Whitaker later said her experiences as a child should not be an excuse to traumatize the boy.
As Whitaker pronounced the sentence, a loud scream erupted from a group of friends and family members watching the hearing in the back of the courtroom. One man began to scream, while others pleaded, “Stop. Don’t do this. Stop this.”
The judge calmly said, “Get out.”
A man identified as Jacquelynn’s father responded loudly, “Yeah, I’m going outside,” and began aggressively walking past his daughter’s husband. A brief altercation ensued between the two.
Eventually, the elderly man left the courtroom and a deputy from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office arrived.
The judge ordered that Jacquelynn be remanded in custody within two weeks.
Key to the prosecution was a series of text messages taken from Nicholas’s cell phone. They showed the following:
Within a week of the boy coming to their home, Jacquelynn began to hate being alone with him, telling her husband, “I can’t do this.” Within two months, text messages revealed that she feared she was becoming a child abuser.
In September, she texted her husband saying she had pinched the child’s face and pushed him.
“I’ve never hurt anyone,” she said in a message. “But it’s like I’m blinded by anger. I’m a monster Nick. I’m evil.”
“Why did God call us to do something so stressful and painful?” she wrote in another text to her husband.
In another text, her husband attempted to reassure her, joking that if the APD were investigating them for child abuse, “at least it would be people I know.” After his charges in early 2022, Nicholas was fired from the APD and has appealed his termination.
The message thread had ceased on November 19, 2021, when the child’s injuries were discovered during an examination by a doctor treating him for sleep apnea. The boy was removed from their care and law enforcement became involved.
During an examination by the University of New Mexico Hospital’s child abuse team, the boy was found to have “extensive skin lesions from head to toe, including his penis and scrotum, as well as multiple healing rib fractures.”
Jacquelynn entered into a plea agreement in March, pleading guilty to three counts of child abuse and one count of failure to report child abuse.
