{"id":23761,"date":"2026-03-28T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=23761"},"modified":"2026-03-27T06:14:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:14:41","slug":"moorhead-woman-to-plead-in-toddler-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/moorhead-woman-to-plead-in-toddler-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Moorhead Woman to Plead in Toddler Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moorhead<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A Moorhead woman is expected to plead guilty in the abuse-related death of a toddler who was in her care.<\/p>\n

Plea Hearing Set in Clay County<\/h2>\n

Court records say a plea agreement has been reached in the case against 24-year-old Shiann Lynn Erickson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Erickson is charged with second-degree murder without intent. A change of plea hearing is scheduled for April 7.<\/p>\n

She had earlier pleaded not guilty in the death of 3-year-old Eastyn Deronjic.<\/p>\n

\"Shiann
Shiann Lynn Erickson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Child Died in March 2024<\/h2>\n

Prosecutors say Erickson and her former partner, 25-year-old Mason Garza, were responsible for the boy\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Investigators said the child\u2019s mother left Eastyn and a younger sibling in their care.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, the mother told investigators she was dealing with addiction.<\/p>\n

She also said she was trying to leave an abusive relationship.<\/p>\n

Emergency crews were called to the couple\u2019s apartment in Moorhead on March 18, 2024.<\/p>\n

Authorities found Eastyn was not breathing. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.<\/p>\n

Autopsy Found Severe Injuries<\/h2>\n

An autopsy found more than two dozen blunt force injuries on the child.<\/p>\n

The report ruled the death a homicide. It said the cause of death was assault.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also said the child was treated with particular cruelty.<\/p>\n

They said his age made him especially vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Those claims exposed both defendants to harsher penalties.<\/p>\n

The original charge carried a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Co-Defendant Already Sentenced<\/h2>\n

Garza already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the case.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Erickson\u2019s defense team had planned to argue she was also abused by Garza.<\/p>\n

Defense filings said she feared immediate harm if she tried to stop him.<\/p>\n

That argument was expected to play a key role if the case went to trial.<\/p>\n

The guilty plea would avoid a trial and move the case into sentencing.<\/p>\n

For official case and court information, readers can visit the Clay County District Court<\/a>, the Minnesota Court Records Online system<\/a>, and the Clay County official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moorhead (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 A Moorhead woman is expected to plead guilty in the abuse-related death of a toddler who was in her care. Plea Hearing Set in Clay County Court records say a plea agreement has been reached in the case against 24-year-old Shiann Lynn Erickson. Erickson is charged with second-degree murder without intent. A… Continue reading Moorhead Woman to Plead in Toddler Death<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[15630,15631,1140,1136,1442,772,1994,15649,2309,3104,912,15650,14871,1346,13250,2858,15647,10745,15651,620],"class_list":["post-23761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-3yearolds","tag-abuserelated","tag-child-abuse-case","tag-clay-county","tag-connection","tag-crime","tag-death","tag-eastyn-deronjic","tag-guilty","tag-guilty-plea","tag-inforum","tag-mason-garza","tag-minnesota-court-news","tag-moorhead","tag-plead","tag-second-degree-murder","tag-shiann-lynn-erickson","tag-toddler","tag-toddler-death","tag-woman","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}