Allysen Armenta admitted one felony and entered Alford pleas to two others after the suffocation death of her 12-day-old son.

NAMPA, Idaho — Sentencing has been delayed for an Idaho mother who pleaded guilty to three felonies connected to the death of her 12-day-old son after a judge allowed her attorney to withdraw from the case, leaving the court to appoint new counsel before deciding when punishment will be imposed.

Allysen Armenta, 28, had been scheduled for sentencing after pleading guilty to felony injury to a child and entering Alford pleas to two evidence-related felonies. Those pleas remain in effect, according to the court proceedings reported Sept. 24. Judge Thomas Whitney vacated the previously scheduled sentencing date because a replacement lawyer would need time to review what he described as a complex, high-stakes case. A status conference is set for Oct. 1, when the court is expected to assess whether new counsel has been assigned and determine how the case should proceed.

The latest delay extends a case that already took an unusual turn during an earlier plea hearing. Armenta appeared in court July 30 under an agreement that was expected to resolve the case with a guilty plea to injury to a child and failure to notify authorities of a death, while other charges were to be dismissed. But while she was explaining the factual basis for her plea, the proceeding stopped. Whitney told the courtroom that a legal issue had arisen and gave prosecutors and defense lawyers additional time to research it. The plea hearing was later rescheduled rather than completed under the original arrangement.

When Armenta returned to court in August, the agreement had changed. She pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child and entered Alford pleas to two counts involving destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence. Under an Alford plea, a defendant accepts a conviction while not expressly admitting factual guilt, acknowledging instead that prosecutors have enough evidence to obtain a conviction. A misdemeanor count of obstructing or delaying a police officer was dismissed. The revised disposition left Armenta facing three felony convictions rather than the combination contemplated at the earlier hearing.

The charges grew out of the Dec. 16, 2025, death of Armenta’s newborn son, Benjamin, who was also known as Benji. The Canyon County Coroner’s Office determined that Benjamin died of suffocation and classified the manner of death as accidental. Prosecutors have said the infant died sometime between about 11 p.m. Dec. 15 and 2 a.m. Dec. 16 while sleeping in a bed with Armenta and the child’s father, Brian Lemke, inside a travel trailer on a Nampa property. The case was not prosecuted as a homicide, and authorities have not alleged that either parent intentionally killed the child.

What happened after Benjamin died became a major part of the criminal case. Investigators determined that the baby was taken from the travel trailer to the main house on the property before authorities were notified. Prosecutors said the move destroyed the original scene and created a different one for investigators. Lemke later admitted that he moved Benjamin, swaddled the child and placed him in a bassinet inside the house before making a 911 call at about 3:30 a.m. The Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said Lemke initially asked for a coroner to be sent to the residence.

Authorities also said Armenta remained in the trailer rather than coming forward when emergency personnel arrived. Canyon County prosecutors said she stayed there for about an hour and a half before officers located her. Police had initially been directed to the main house, even though investigators later concluded that Benjamin had died in the trailer. That discrepancy, along with the movement of the child’s body, became central to the evidence-concealment allegations. Reporting on the initial investigation also described the trailer as containing substantial trash, dirt and animal waste, conditions prosecutors later characterized in court as unsuitable for a newborn.

The family had already drawn the attention of child welfare authorities before Benjamin’s death. Canyon County officials said Child Protective Services had contacted Nampa police in the two days before the infant died and asked for help locating Armenta, Lemke and the baby for a welfare check. Officials said the couple’s location was not known to authorities during that effort. Separately, women caring for some of the couple’s other children told Idaho News 6 that they had warned state officials about the newborn and wanted someone to confirm that he was living in a safe environment.

Court records and previous reporting showed that Armenta and Lemke had prior child-related convictions and had lost custody of other children. A probable cause affidavit cited in local reporting said five children had been removed from their care. Those circumstances later became part of a broader debate in Idaho over how quickly child welfare officials should respond when a newborn is reported to be living with caregivers who have documented histories involving serious child protection concerns. Benjamin’s death became the case cited by supporters of legislation known as Benji’s Law, which called for faster safety checks in certain high-risk infant cases.

Lemke’s case reached sentencing months before Armenta’s. He pleaded guilty to failure to report a death and destruction or concealment of evidence, admitting in court that he delayed notification and moved Benjamin’s body from where the child died. On July 24, Whitney sentenced him to a unified term of up to 15 years in state prison, with six years required before he becomes eligible for parole. At that hearing, the judge emphasized that Lemke was being punished for the offenses to which he pleaded guilty, not for causing Benjamin’s death. Lemke apologized in court and said he wished he could change his actions.

Armenta’s legal position is different in part because her plea agreement includes felony injury to a child as well as the two evidence counts. At the aborted July hearing, reporting from the courtroom said Armenta acknowledged that the trailer was not suitable for a baby and discussed sleeping with Benjamin in the same bed. She also acknowledged having access to a cellphone that could have been used to contact authorities. The hearing ended before the original plea agreement was finalized, however, and the final August agreement should not be treated as identical to what had been contemplated in July.

The case also contains an important distinction between the medical finding and the criminal conduct alleged afterward. The coroner ruled Benjamin’s death an accidental suffocation, while prosecutors focused heavily on the conditions in which the newborn was living, the delay in reporting his death and the changes made to the scene before police arrived. That distinction was also evident in Lemke’s sentencing, where Whitney said the court was sentencing him for his admitted crimes rather than treating the proceeding as punishment for homicide.

Armenta’s next step is now procedural rather than a sentencing hearing. On Sept. 24, Whitney granted her lawyer’s request to withdraw and ordered the State Public Defender’s Office to assign another attorney. The court also discussed an unsolicited letter that Armenta had sent to prosecutors; officials said it had not been opened, and the judge said he had not seen it. Her three felony pleas remain in place. The Oct. 1 status conference could be used to address new counsel and a future sentencing date, but the court has not announced when sentencing will occur.

Author note: Last updated September 30, 2026.