Kimberly Emelyantsev, a longtime Tooele County resident, was known by family, friends and neighbors as a caring mother who gladly adopted two special needs children from Russia on top of her already busy family life.

So it came as a shock to an entire community when Emelyantsev was charged in March with killing baby Nikolai, a 14-month-old Down syndrome child that Emelyantsev and her husband, Fyodor, had adopted from Russia only two weeks prior.

The details of the case, which were slowly revealed over the course of six months, captured national and international media attention, including scrutiny from Russian news agencies linking the story to what they claimed was a broader trend of violent deaths among Russian children adopted by U.S. families.

On March 6, Emelyantsev, 34, made a 911 call to report that Nikolai was experiencing breathing problems. Tooele City police officers who responded to the scene noted discoloration and bruising to the child’s face. The child was taken to Mountain West Medical Center and then transported to Primary Children’s Medical Center, where he later died.

Emelyantsev originally told police the child had fallen off a chair in the family’s living room when she had left the room for a few minutes to change another child’s diaper. She was arrested March 10 after physicians at Primary Children’s Medical Center advised police that Nikolai had sustained injuries that were a result of blunt-force trauma to the head and could not have been caused by a fall as described by Emelyantsev.

Emelyantsev was originally charged with first-degree murder, but pled guilty on June 20 to a lesser charge of second-degree felony child abuse homicide as part of a plea deal.

Third District Court Judge Mark Kouris required Emelyantsev to complete a 60-day psychological evaluation, during which she revealed what had actually happened that day.

Emelyantsev told interviewers she had kicked the child twice, sliding him across the floor, according to Tooele County Attorney Doug Hogan. Later that day, when frustration with the needs of her other children boiled over, Emelyantsev picked up Nikolai and “slammed” him onto the hard-surface floor twice.

Emelyantsev and her husband both relinquished their parental rights to their four remaining children — a 10-year-old Down syndrome daughter from Kimberly’s previous marriage, their two biological children, ages 5 and 2, and a 4-year-old Down syndrome son they adopted from Russia in December 2007. The children are currently being cared for by family members.

The couple was originally charged with child neglect connected to the malnutrition of the 4-year-old adopted child, but that case was later dismissed.

Emelyantsev was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison with a recommendation that she attend all possible treatment.

“As terrible as this is, there is going to be life on the other side of this,” Kouris told Emelyantsev during her sentencing.

Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com