A 12-day-old was found dead in Nampa. Parents are facing several charges
Two parents in Nampa are accused of covering up the circumstances of a death after police found an infant dead in their residence.
Brian Lemke, 31, and Allysen Armenta, 28, were arrested Monday and face charges of injury to a child, destroying evidence, failure to notify a death, and resisting and obstructing an arrest. The first three charges are all felonies.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, a detective present at the infant’s autopsy stated that the cause of death appeared to be suffocation, alleging that the newborn might have been sleeping in the same bed as the parents.
During Lemke and Armenta’s arraignments, Canyon County prosecuting attorney Kara Przybos said co-sleeping can end in a “tragic accident,” but also said this infant’s death was “predictable” because of the unhealthy living conditions of the residence. The infant had no safe place to sleep, she said.
On Dec. 16 at about 3:30 a.m., police dispatch received a call reporting the possible death of an infant at a residence on the 300 block of Lone Star Road, a news release said. Emergency responders went to the home and confirmed the death, according to the Nampa Police Department release.
The father of the infant was at the scene and told officers the mother was not there, but police found that the mother was hiding in a camping trailer in the backyard. She was originally taken into custody on an unrelated warrant from Ada County for a probation violation related to a previous child-injury sentence, authorities said.
The infant was 12 days old, police spokesperson Carmen Boeger told the Statesman in a message. The official cause of death is pending the autopsy results, and the incident is still under investigation by police.
In 2019, Lemke and Armenta pleaded guilty to three counts of misdemeanor injury to a child, and they were sentenced to 180 days in jail. Their children at that time were removed from the couple by Child Protective Services.
Lemke and Armenta are being held at the Canyon County jail on $500,000 bond apiece.
Nampa police encouraged anyone with further information to contact Detective Mason Foster at 208-565-5174.
This story was originally published December 30, 2025 at 1:03 PM.
