A Denver teenager faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to killing her 7-year-old nephew in their Montbello home in 2018.
Jennie Bunsom, now 18, was 16 when she was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of her nephew, Jordan Vong.
On Monday, she pleaded guilty to new charges of second-degree murder and tampering with a body, both felonies. The original first-degree murder charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
“I plead guilty,” Bunsom quietly told Denver District Court Judge Ericka Englert during Monday’s hearing.
Investigators believed Bunsom smothered the boy to death on Aug. 6, 2018, after he asked to play video games with her, then she wrapped his body in a blanket and hid it in a portable closet in her bedroom, telling no one.
The boy was reported missing that afternoon, prompting an extensive search by police and neighbors. Two days later, investigators searched the family’s home and found Jordan’s body in the closet.
Bunsom turned 16 the day before the killing and was charged as an adult with Jordan’s murder.
The plea agreement gives Englert three options for sentencing, with punishments ranging from seven years in juvenile detention to up to 30 years in adult prison.
First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence in Colorado. The maximum prison sentence Bunsom could have faced for second-degree murder is 48 years in prison.
Bunsom is scheduled to be sentenced May 21.
