Duluth man sentenced to 15 years in toddler's death

DULUTH - A St. Louis County district judge gave a maximum 15-year prison sentence to a Duluth man Friday in the 2020 death of 3-year-old Cameron Gordon, the son of his then-fiancée.

Judge Theresa Neo sentenced Jordan Carter, 32, in a tense courtroom packed with family and friends of both the defendant and the victim.

The boy's mother, Heather Bouchard, said in her victim impact statement that if Cameron were still alive, he'd be 6 years old and in kindergarten. He would have picked out a new backpack for the year and come home with school pictures.

"But because of Jordan, Cameron will be forever three," she said. "There are days that the slightest smell, toy, song or show will remind me of Cameron. ... I often wonder if I will ever be normal again."

Bouchard asked Neo for the maximum sentence allowed "for taking the life of an innocent, perfect, healthy child."

Carter, who often cared for Bouchard's son in her Lakeside neighborhood home while she was at work, was found guilty in February of unintentional second-degree murder. He had waived his right to a jury trial and declined to speak on Friday.

According to the criminal complaint, Cameron was in Carter's care on Sept. 4, 2020, when the boy was found unresponsive in his bedroom. The previous day, Cameron had fallen down the basement staircase. He later threw up twice. Carter's mother, Donna Goeb, a nurse, checked him for a concussion and, while the boy was responsive, told Carter to monitor him. The next day, Cameron seemed back to his high-energy self.

That night, Carter sent the boy to clean his room and about 30 minutes later found him lying unconscious on the floor. Carter told authorities that he shook Cameron and splashed water on his face. But the boy never regained consciousness — not at Essentia Health in Duluth or at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, where he was taken by life-flight.

Doctors said Cameron had suffered a traumatic brain injury and that bruising on his back was consistent with abuse. Carter's attorney, Eric Olson, had argued a potential medical event resulted in the boy's death, and said Friday in his bid for leniency that the crime he was convicted of was "completely out of character."

In her remarks, Neo said she agreed with the science presented by doctors who said Cameron's injuries were caused by "forces that did not occur naturally" but by "the hands of a human."

"I have thought about this case every day," Neo said. "When Cameron died, all of you lost."

Bouchard said her son's heart "will continue to beat on" in a little girl, who was 6 months old when she benefited from a transplant.