‘Bad thoughts or voices’ told her to drown her baby. A decade later, she’s accused of doing it
Sherri Renee Telnas told Montana investigators that “bad thoughts or voices” in her head made her carry her 10-month-old into a river to try and drown him in 2008.
More than a decade later, she is accused of murder and attempted murder after Tulare County Sheriff’s deputies found her two boys in an irrigation ditch.
Deputies were dispatched Saturday to Telnas’ rural home northwest of Porterville. They had gotten a call around 5:30 a.m. that Telnas had taken her sons to a corn field across the street from their home.
By the time deputies arrived, the boys were found unconscious in the water-filled ditch. The boys have been identified by family as Jackson, 12, and Jacob Ray, 7.
The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said Jackson’s cause of death was “fresh water drowning.”
Telnas had been acting strange, according to a neighbor who called the sheriff’s office.
It was not the first time Telnas was accused of endangering a child. In April 2008, according to news reports, she immersed herself in a Montana river with Jackson, then 10 months old. She then drove him to the hospital and stated to police “I tried to drown my baby.”
That incident, like the one Saturday, left the Telnas family grieving and looking for answers. The near-drowning in 2008 “completely destroyed” and “completely tore our family apart,” said Ellie Brown, an aunt of the boys.
Though one of their own has died, Brown said she hopes the family will come together to support Jacob Telnas, father of the two boys, as he tries to reach his sons more than 1,000 miles away.
“It seems like this might be an opportunity to try and heal,” Brown said. “As we are mourning we are coming together.”
Brown said the family found out about the boy’s death Saturday night after a friend saw the news on TV. She added that the father of the boys was beyond inconsolable.
Family history
Telnas was charged with attempted homicide in 2008, but pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal endangerment instead as part of a plea agreement. During her trial, she underwent a mental evaluation that found she could not have acted purposely.
According to news reports from the time, Telnas faced a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty. But with the lesser charges, she was sentenced to 20 years in custody of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. She was allowed to keep Jackson after a brief custody battle with Jacob Telnas.
Brown said Sherri and Jacob Telnas were still in communication back then and soon had their young son Jacob Ray, who today is fighting for his life at Valley Children’s Hospital.
Telnas moved to California in 2013. She and her husband divorced in 2011. He still lives in Montana, but had visited Telnas and the boys within the last year.
Telnas will appear in Tulare County court on Tuesday to be arraigned on four charges stemming from Saturday’s death of her son. She faces a charge of murder, attempted murder, corporal injury to a child and obstructing a police officer.
Brown has set up a GoFundMe page to cover the medical and funeral costs for the boys as well as to help get their father to Calfifornia.
“Right now the most important thing is getting my brother-in-law to Fresno,” Brown said by phone Monday. Just over $700 had been raised as of 3 p.m. Monday.
This story was originally published July 1, 2019 at 3:58 PM.