Father pleads guilty after Nampa infant’s death. Mother hasn’t entered plea
The father of an infant police found dead in a Nampa home has entered a guilty plea and will be sentenced later this summer.
His wife still has not entered a plea to various charges related to the 12-day-old’s death.
Brian Lemke, 31, and Allysen Armenta, 28, were arrested last December after police said they covered up the circumstances of their child’s death. The pair have a history of child abuse convictions and lost custody of children before, and the death of Benjamin at the end of 2025 sparked advocacy for more comprehensive child protection laws in Idaho in this year’s legislative session.
Lemke was charged with failure to notify of a death, injury to child, destruction of evidence and resisting arrest. He originally pleaded not guilty, but on April 23 signed a plea agreement to plead guilty to two charges: failure to notify and destruction of evidence. The other two charges were dropped.
Lemke’s sentencing will be July 24 at 9 a.m. in front of 3rd District Judge Thomas Whitney. He faces up to 10 years in prison and up to a $50,000 fine on the first count and up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine on the second.
Armenta was found hiding on the property on Dec. 16 when police arrived and discovered Benjamin, and taken into custody on an unrelated probation violation. She was later charged with failure to notify of a death, injury to child, destruction of evidence and resisting arrest.
Armenta has yet to enter a plea, according to court records, and requested more time from the court. Her next status hearing will be May 28 at 10:30 a.m., with Whitney presiding.
Canyon County prosecutor: The death was ‘predictable’
The Department of Health and Welfare was notified about Benjamin’s living situation by the adoptive parent of the child’s biological siblings, Monique Peyre, shortly after the baby’s Dec. 4 birth.
Peyre previously told the Statesman that she “begged” the department to make a welfare check because of the parents’ history.
Both Lemke and Armenta have multiple previous child abuse convictions, according to court records. 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 by state Child Protective Services.
When Health and Welfare received the tip, Benjamin’s case was classified as Priority 3, the department’s lowest level, which requires a service worker to respond and make contact within three days. DHW spokesperson AJ McWhorter told the Statesman that service workers struggled to make contact with Armenta and Lemke, and could not confirm their location for a site visit.
It wasn’t until Dec. 15 that a Health and Welfare staff member was able to reach Lemke over the phone to plan for a welfare check. It was in the early hours of Dec. 16 that Nampa Police Department officers responded to Lone Star Road after a report of an unconscious infant.
Police said they found the unconscious infant and Lemke in the house on the property. Lemke originally told police that he and the child had slept in the living room of the home, and he awoke to find Benjamin unconscious. He also told officers that Armenta was not there, but police found her in their trailer in the backyard.
Police also learned that the trailer was where the couple lived.
After conducting interviews and obtaining text messages between the couple, investigators concluded that Armenta and Lemke fell asleep with Benjamin in the bed of the camper, which led to the child’s suffocation. The affidavit of probable cause also stated that a detective present at the infant’s autopsy said the cause was suffocation.
Police alleged that the couple found the baby unconscious when they woke up and moved his body to the house, with Armenta remaining in the camper and Lemke calling 911.
During the couple’s arraignments, Canyon County prosecutor Kara Przybos said the child did not have a safe place to sleep. She noted that co-sleeping between adults and infants often can end in a “tragic accident,” but said Benjamin’s death was “predictable” because of the living conditions.
Police said in the affidavit that the trailer did not seem to be a safe environment and was “full of trash, food, clothing, animal feces and miscellaneous items all over.”
Texts between the couple revealed that they discussed a potential welfare check in the days leading up to the death and a plan to lie to Health and Welfare by saying they lived in the house. They also talked about hiding or running away.
“Pack a bag for me and the baby and you and just run,” Armenta texted Lemke on Dec. 14, according to the affidavit. It also said that Armenta made clear in the texts that she didn’t want to “lose another baby.”
Furthering Idaho’s child protection laws
After the public learned of Benjamin’s death, advocates and legislators worked on a bill to address the issues they believe contributed to Benjamin’s death.
A group of foster parents, including Peyre, helped draft Benji’s Law, which was signed into law in March. It requires the Department of Health and Welfare to respond more quickly and with escalated action when notified of an infant living with parents or guardians with a “high-risk history” — convictions of child abuse or sexual abuse, parental rights that were previously terminated, or exposure to narcotics use, for example.
The group worked on two additional bills that Gov. Brad Little signed into law. One lays out regulations for the safety and care of children in foster care, and one gives courts guidelines for how to handle parental visits in cases of substantiated abuse.
