Plymouth couple who fled country after death of child pleads guilty to neglect charges

A Plymouth couple pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges filed in connection to their 7-year-old adopted son’s death in March 2015.

As previously reported, Timothy and Sarah Johnson fled the country to New Zealand after being charged in December 2016 with one count each of gross misdemeanor child neglect.

When the Johnsons failed to appear at multiple hearings in January 2017, warrants were issued for their arrest. Those warrants weren’t cleared until July 2022, and court proceedings began later that month.

The Johnsons’ change-of-plea petitions filed on Wednesday request no jail time and two years of probation. Their joint sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 12.

The couple was said to have fostered the victim when he was 3 and adopted him when he was 4. According to a criminal complaint, Plymouth police and EMS responded to a call of a child not breathing the morning of March 30, 2015, and they pronounced the boy dead less than an hour later.

An autopsy showed the boy had died from acute pancreatitis and possible sepsis; the boy also had cuts and bruises, and he was below the 10th percentile in his age group for growth measurements.

The couple told law enforcement the boy’s behavior had changed in the weeks leading up to his death. They also said the boy’s health had gotten worse to the point where he wasn’t moving only a few days prior to his death. During those days, the boy was left with the couple’s 16-year-old son while the couple attended an out-of-town wedding.

The couple never took the child to the doctor because they had “issues with going to doctors,” according to the criminal complaint. They attempted at-home care. They told investigators they laid the boy to sleep the night of March 29, 2015, and the next morning, they found him unresponsive and covered in vomit. They then called 911 and attempted CPR.