Mother in Jefferson County admits to smothering 5-year-old son, records show

Court records in Jefferson County report that Kathryn Lesal Garaas, 40, confessed to smothering her 5-year-old son on April 24 by using a plastic bag to cover the boy’s head.

Around 1 p.m. that day, deputies from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office responded to the report of a medical incident involving a child at Tatanka Trail north of Whitehall.

A woman later identified as Garaas told the deputies the boy was in his room and had been for about an hour, records show.

“As deputies entered the room, they observed a plastic bag covering the head of a small child. Deputies attempted to revive the child but the child was stiff and rigor mortis was setting in,” according to an affidavit filed with the court.

After being read her Miranda rights, Garaas admitted to placing the bag over the child’s head, records show.

During a subsequent interview with a Division of Criminal Investigations agent, Garaas allegedly confessed again to smothering the child, telling the boy, “it would soon be over.”

Garaas told investigators she held the bag in place until she could not feel a pulse in his neck and allegedly said she smothered the boy to “save him because things would have only gotten worse.”

Records show she texted the boy’s father, Tyler Blair, to tell him of his son’s death. The family later identified the boy as Reign Tyler Blair and a GoFundMe account was established.

Garaas is charged with deliberate homicide, a felony punishable by death, by life in prison or imprisonment in the state prison for not less than 10 years or more than 100.

She is being held on a $5 million bond.