Insets, from top: Sophia Mason and Samantha Johnson (Merced County District Attorney). Background: Police investigate after Sophia’s body was discovered in a bathtub in 2022 (KFSN).
A California county has acknowledged that its child welfare system failed an 8-year-old girl who was found dead in a bathtub after repeated abuse warnings went without proper investigation and after she had allegedly been forced to live in a shed.
Alameda County agreed to a $12 million settlement with Sophia Mason’s grandmother following the child’s death from abuse inflicted by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.
“Since her passing, we learned, and as a community reckoned with, the fact that the systems in place designed to keep her safe were unsuccessful,” the county’s Board of Supervisors said in a statement.
Sophia had been reported missing before authorities discovered her decomposing body on March 11, 2022, inside a bathtub in Merced, about 50 miles northwest of Fresno.
An independent review of the case found that the Alameda County Department of Children and Family Services had received eight referrals raising concerns about possible abuse, seven of them in 2021 alone. The reports alleged that Sophia’s mother and her mother’s boyfriend choked the girl and beat her with a belt, leaving visible bruises.
Investigators concluded those warnings were either mishandled or not examined at all.
In October 2021, roughly six months before Sophia was found dead, she was brought to a hospital with bruises and what appeared to be cigarette burns. Doctors flagged concerns about possible abuse, but Sophia’s mother left with the child before staff could finish a more complete examination. Rather than pursuing the matter, officials closed the case.
“The assigned investigator did not adequately document or recognize Sophia’s injuries or review medical records containing critical evidence and photographs,” the report said. “DCFS did not ensure that a medical examination with skeletal survey was completed for Sophia before the investigation was closed. Instead, the injuries were attributed to a motor vehicle accident or childhood accidental injuries. In the January 2021 to March 2021 investigation, the DCFS investigator similarly discounted signs and disclosure of physical abuse.”
The report blamed the failures on poor staff decisions, lack of supervision and numerous open positions within the agency. The Board of Supervisors said it is working on addressing the issues so that “each child in Alameda County can access their infinite potential.”
Sophia’s mother, 34-year-old Samantha Johnson, pleaded no contest to manslaughter and two counts of child abuse. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped the murder charge. A judge in March sentenced Johnson to 15 years and 8 months in prison.
Johnson was arrested immediately after Sophia’s death, while her boyfriend Dhante Jackson was taken into custody about six months later. He was facing the same charges but he pleaded guilty last October to a lesser charge. He was released from jail with credit for time served.
The San Jose Mercury News reported Johnson left Sophia with family members shortly after the girl’s birth. Her grandmother raised her until Johnson came back into picture in 2021 and took back custody to her.
“This isn’t justice,” Sophia’s aunt Emerald Johnson wrote in a victim impact statement, per the Mercury News. “Sophia didn’t get to live her life. Her life was cut short. [Samantha] and Dhante both deserve to rot in prison for the rest of your lives.”
The aunt concluded: “But regardless of these sentences, I know that God has the last say for you both. You will get the karma that you truly deserve.”
Lynn Linnen, another of Sophia’s aunts, had a frank assessment of the defendant’s parenting skills.
“You failed,” Linnen told her, the Mercury News reported. “Instead of protecting her, you allowed her to suffer and die.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Sophia was forced to live in a shed in the backyard of her home in the final months of her life.
According to the Merced Sun-Star, Johnson told investigators that the last time she saw her daughter alive was on Feb. 10, 2022.
On that day, she took Sophia out of the shed to clean the feces covering her body, according to the report.
Johnson then left the girl alone in a bathroom with Jackson, the man she knew was abusing her daughter both physically and sexually at the time, authorities claimed.
She reportedly told investigators that soon after, she heard a “thud.”
The next day, a sliding door was left open in the home, reports the Merced Sun-Star, and Johnson assumed her physically weakened daughter had gone out on her own.
Johnson said she believed Sophia had run away.
This scenario is most parents’ worst nightmare, but Johnson refused to search for her daughter or report the girl missing.
“Jackson told Johnson that your daughter does not want to be with you and does not want to be your daughter anymore. Johnson stated that Jackson told her this, so that is the reason why she stopped looking for [Sophia],” reads the report.
Police officers discovered Sophia’s body exactly one month after Johnson last saw her daughter.
After days of searching for Sophia in response to an at-risk missing juvenile report, officers with the Hayward Police Department said they finally located the residence where Johnson was living with Jackson.
Hayward police officers say they faced one more hurdle when Johnson and Jackson refused to answer the door, so they waited until Johnson left the residence.
“On Mar 10, 2022, as detectives continued their investigative efforts, it was determined probable cause existed to arrest Johnson for corporal injury on a child,” HPD wrote in a press release. “Detectives also received information Johnson may be at an address in Newark. Hayward PD Officers responded to the area, located Johnson, and took her into custody.”
Cops then obtained a search warrant for the home where Johnson and Jackson were living with Sophia, where authorities discovered the missing girl.
Chris Spargo contributed to this report
The post Severe child welfare failures allowed 8-year-old’s abuse to go unnoticed until her decomposed body was discovered in a bathtub after living in a shed first appeared on Law & Crime.
