Riverdale mother, 27, sentenced to prison in death of her 2-month-old

OGDEN — Bryce Jo Harkins will serve 15 years to life in prison for the death of her 2-month-old baby last January.

Harkins, 27, looked as if she had just been crying when she was ushered into the 4th-floor courtroom in Ogden's 2nd District Court on Friday. She had long red hair falling past her shoulders and braided in four tight pleats at the top of her head, and she was chained at the wrists and ankles. She has been in Weber County Jail for 376 days.

Harkins effectively "chose her sentence," according to defense attorney Randall Marshall, "when she pled guilty" in December to murder, a first-degree felony. As part of a deal, the original charge of aggravated murder was reduced.

Riverdale police, many of whom quietly lined the back of the courtroom Friday, responded to a call of a baby not breathing on Jan. 14, 2024. They arrived to find the baby dead.

Prosecutor Branden Miles said the medical examiner observed Calvin Samuel Chacone had bruises across his forehead, scalp, eyelids, cheeks and jaw. He had more on his chest, shoulders and thigh — 27 in total. Internally, he had three skull fractures, retinal hemorrhaging and older brain injuries.

There were "maybe more injuries than days," Miles said, "a horrendous amount of abuse."

The hearing was a chance for the family of 39-day-old baby Calvin to address the court, clearly torn apart by the loss, with comments containing rage, confusion, grief and shame at what happened just over a year ago.

Countless family members never got to meet the little boy, the baby's paternal grandmother Irene Chacone said. She only met him once, on Christmas Day. "I remember how tiny and light he was," she said. "His long, skinny fingers, and holding him in my arms."

The woman stood behind the rail separating the gallery from desks full of lawyers, wearing a shirt with the only photo she had of the boy. At the time of his death, he weighed 5.5 pounds, according to Miles. He was in the third percentile for weight, length and head circumference.

"He was a tiny baby," Miles said. "All babies are vulnerable — he was more vulnerable."

Irene Chacone said her husband, the baby's paternal grandfather, never went to court hearings because he could not bear to hear the "barbarity" of what was done. "To us, he meant the world," she said. "We think about him every day."

Shaking, Irene Chacone called Harkins an "uncaring, undeserved monster of a mother."

The problems began months before birth, according to family members. Harkins started treatment for seizures around the time she learned she was pregnant with Calvin, her second son, according to Michael Chacone, the father of both children.

The baby "had red hair like her, blue eyes like her," he said. "Every day I imagine what he would be like today."

Harkins' seizures were possibly from a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis early in life, said Heidi Harkins, the mother of the convicted.

Bryce Harkins struggled with depression, was abusing alcohol and marijuana while pregnant, and was on various medications, Michael Chacone said. The woman was also taking levetiracetam, a medication to treat epilepsy, according to Heidi Harkins.

Severe behavioral side effects, known as levetiracetam-induced rage, can present as "uncontrollable anger, fits of fury, depression, violence and suicidal tendencies," according to a 2015 case study.

These side effects are rare, but Rebekah Woods, a neurologist at the Norton Neuroscience Institute, said in a 2024 article that some patients taking the drug experience "seething rage, uncontrollable anger, fits of fury and violence."

There was no mention from the defense whether they believe the drug played any part in the killing of Calvin. Michael Chacone said, "I'll always believe that the medication ... was weighing on her something horrible."

At one point, doctors told Harkins that the baby had a 4% chance of surviving the pregnancy, Heidi Harkins told the court. Her daughter told her that "regardless of the chance, I still want to see this through."

When he was born, he had a cleft lip. Irene Chacon said Calvin "was a fighter," but Harkins was "embarrassed and ashamed because of his appearance. ... He didn't matter and exist to her."

Michael Chacone said she was "not the monster that was just described." He said his little family would sit on the floor; Harkins would wash the baby with the little bucket and implements given to them from the hospital. "I just held him," Michael Chacone said, while Calvin's older brother would watch, and "she was so gentle with him."

He wondered aloud if he was "oblivious or exhausted," returning to work, but "I didn't see any of it."

As family spoke, the microphone on the podium would occasionally pick up the soft sobbing of Harkins as she listened to the statements. Michael Chacone said that when his son gets older, he's going to tell him, "This wasn't your mom. She was sick, and we didn't know what to do."

"It's indescribable," he said, "when you wake up, and you don't feel whole."

Miles said "we may never know" why Harkins did what she did, but "Calvin Chacon was a blameless, harmless infant."

Harkins made a brief comment to Judge Joseph Bean. She apologized to the families and said, "I should have done better by my two boys, and I love them more than anything."

In addition to Harkins' prison sentence, she was ordered to pay $3,676 to family members for funeral expenses.

"This was horrific," the judge said. He warned family members to stop blaming themselves for Harkins' actions. "I don't doubt," the medication, depression and other factors played into the baby's death, Bean said. His voice caught in his throat as he grew emotional, adding, "But little Calvin didn't deserve what he had to suffer."

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