Jake Jensen,  has been charged with murdering his wife Stephanie’s one-year-old daughter Sophia in 2016 [left], whom he claimed suffered a seizure

Jake Jensen, has been charged with murdering his wife Stephanie’s one-year-old daughter Sophia in 2016 . He said the girl, who suffered cerebral palsy, died of a seizure However,  a new autopsy report proved that he lied about the events that led to the toddlers death on found in January 5, 2016.  The Medical Examiner’s office ruled that little Sophie was battered to death by her care giver, who happened to be her mother’s lover and a father of a son himself.
The Utah father has been charged with abusing and killing his girlfriend’s disabled daughter, more than a year after claiming she died of a seizure and four months after marrying the girl’s mother.
Jensen, 29, was charged on Monday in Salt Lake City, Utah, with beating and killing his wife Stephanie’s daughter Sophia in January 2016.
At the time of the toddler’s death, Jensen told police she suffered a seizure when he was looking after her while her mother was at work and said this was what caused her death.
In March this year, Jake and Stephanie, 23, married and the couple welcomed their daughter, their first child together, in June.
A day after their new daughter’s christening, Monday prosecutors filed charges against Jensen in light of a final autopsy report into Sophia’s death which was completed in January.
After her death, doctors discovered both of Sophie Mahaffey’s legs had been broken and were in various stages of healing, though the broken bones were never reported, the charges state.
A team at Primary Children’s Hospital examined the girl’s body and determined her injuries were “most consistent with severe child physical abuse, given the lack of any other adequate explanation for either her broken legs or the head and eye injuries,” according to charging documents.

Red flags were thrown by the fact that emergency crews arrived when first called to the couple’s home where 19-month-old Sophie was having a seizure, the seizure had stopped. Sophie’s mother, Stephanie Mahaffey and her boyfriend, Jake Jensen, declined to have the baby transported to the hospital but promised to see a doctor in the coming days, charging documents state.
Doctors say the baby would have been in pain “for at least some time,” but the couple never reported it, the court documents state.
During both incidents, Jensen was at home taking care of Sophie while her mother worked. Because he could not explain the baby’s injuries, and his account of what happened the morning the girl died was different from the mother’s, doctors suspected child abuse, the charges state.

Stephanie and Jake Jensen, their two-month-old baby girl, and Jake’s son

The final autopsy report, finalized in January, listed the cause of death as homicide because no explanation had been offered for the subdural hemorrhages the child suffered which were likely caused two to three days before her death and triggered the seizures, according to court documents.
The finalized report found Sophia had been murdered, that she had broken legs when she died and ‘very severe’ facial and head injuries. The suspect was arrested and placed in custody in the Salt Lake County jail
Jensen has been charged with child abuse homicide and child abuse and is in Salt Lake.
Bond is set at $500,000.

In the early hours of the morning, police were called to the home by her worried mother who said she was having a seizure.
When police arrived, Sophia’s vital signs appeared normal and emergency responders left. Her mother decided not to take her to hospital but promised to take her to a doctor, charging documents that were obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune reveal.
Two days later on January 4, Stephanie left her daughter in her boyfriend’s care to go to work again but ‘had a feeling she should come home early’ so did.
When she arrived, Sophia was having another seizure, she later told police. They took her to the hospital but the toddler never regained consciousness and they turned her life support off a day later.
Since Sophia’s death in 2016, the pair have married and had the baby, their first together. Jake already has an older son from a previous relationship.

 

At the time, Jensen raised suspicion by giving police conflicting statements. In one, he said he found Sophia already having the seizure in her crib.
In another, he said she went ‘stiff’ when he gave her a bottle. No charges were brought against either parent.
Stephanie, an avid and enthusiastic Facebook user, immediately began sharing links to a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral costs.
In the weeks that followed, she asked for more money to help pay Sophia’s medical bills. In March this year, Stephanie and Jake Jensen got married. 

Profiting from crime:The couple are still collecting donations for a honeymoon to Bora Bora online 

On Sunday, a day before his arrest, they celebrated the baby’s blessing.
Stephanie proudly told friends on social media that she wore a dress which had been made for Sophia for the occasion.
The woman did not respond to DailyMail.com’s questions regarding her husband’s arrest on Tuesday morning.
The charging documents explain that Jensen was charged because experts could find no other explanation for the no explanation for the subdural hemorrhages which Sophia suffered in the days before her death in 2016 other than that she had been beaten.
They said she had suffered ‘very severe injury to her brain’. Sophia was born with cerebral palsy as a result of being born prematurely.