Baker City father seeks special prosecutor in son's diabetes death case

Jason Kirk is asking a Baker County judge to pull District Attorney Greg Baxter off the case tied to his 10-year-old son’s death, arguing the county prosecutor should have done more before sending the matter to a grand jury. The petition turns Gabriel Ryan Kirk’s death into a test of how Baker County handled a child-death investigation, and whether the legal process matched the family’s expectations.

Gabriel Ryan Kirk died on July 4, 2024, from complications of Type 1 diabetes at St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise, Idaho. He had been diagnosed with diabetes in 2020. The Baker School District told families in August 2024 that Gabriel had died, and later announced a private memorial for him at Phillips Lake on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024.

Jason Kirk filed his petition on May 22, 2026, in Baker County Circuit Court. He is asking Judge Matt Shirtcliff to appoint a special prosecutor and disqualify Baxter from the matter. The filing argues that Baxter had an incomplete investigative foundation before taking the case to a grand jury nearly a year after Gabriel died, and that child-abuse review procedures should have been used first.

Baxter has said the grand jury met in June 2025 and did not indict Gabriel’s mother, Marie Elliott. He also said Jason Kirk testified before the grand jury and that the jurors heard evidence the state had gathered, including reports from medical providers who treated Gabriel and wrote that a failure to seek timely care contributed to his death.

The dispute reaches beyond one family’s grief. Kirk says multiple systems failed his son, including the Oregon Department of Human Services and the court system, and he wants accountability in a case involving a medically fragile child and a custody dispute. Oregon DHS says child protective services respond to abuse reports in every county and often work with law enforcement and community partners. The agency also says district attorneys are required to bring together a multidisciplinary team in child-abuse cases, with participants that can include law enforcement, medical professionals, school officials, juvenile justice representatives, child abuse intervention centers, and county health and mental health personnel.

Baker County’s 2020 census population was 16,668, and Baker City had 10,099 residents, a scale that often makes major cases feel deeply personal in the community. Baxter has served as Baker County district attorney since December 2019 and grew up in Baker City. The case now sits before Baker County Circuit Court, part of Oregon’s 8th Judicial District, with the fight over how Gabriel’s death was handled back in the hands of the court.