Summit County jury acquits night nanny on five child abuse counts, hangs three

A Summit County jury rejected five aggravated child abuse charges against Lindsay Johnson but could not reach a unanimous verdict on three others, leaving the case split between acquittal and mistrial. The 33-year-old night nanny remains at the center of a prosecution that has not fully ended and still carries major consequences for the child’s family and for prosecutors deciding whether to take another run at the unresolved counts.

A Third District Court judge ordered Johnson to remain in the Summit County Jail without bail while the county attorney’s office decides whether to retry the three deadlocked counts. That means the jury’s decision closed the door on five felony allegations, but it did not give either side the final word on the entire case.

Johnson was arrested in late 2024 after a 6-week-old infant in her care was taken to Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital with brain bleeding, broken ribs and broken femurs. Charging documents said the parents left the baby with Johnson overnight, from about 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 26, 2024, until about 7:30 a.m. the next morning. Prosecutors said Johnson was the only person who had contact with the infant during that time.

Physicians at Primary Children’s described the injuries as consistent with shaken baby syndrome or other nonaccidental trauma. The child had also been brought to a hospital six days earlier for a fever and showed no signs of trauma at that visit, a detail that underscored why investigators focused so closely on the overnight period in Johnson’s care.

The Summit County Attorney’s Office initially charged Johnson on Dec. 2, 2024, with five second-degree felony counts of aggravated child abuse. Under Utah law, that offense can carry an indeterminate prison term of one to 15 years, along with a maximum fine of $10,000 on each count. The stakes were high from the beginning, and the jury’s split verdict leaves that exposure only partly resolved.

Johnson, who was 33 at the time of trial, reportedly had a 12-year career in child care and had recently moved to Utah from Vermont. For Summit County, the case now turns from the courtroom drama of a divided jury to a narrower legal question: whether prosecutors believe they can prove the remaining charges beyond a reasonable doubt, or whether the not-guilty verdicts will stand as the final outcome.