WI v. Josie Dikeman

The State of Wisconsin charged Josie Dikeman with three felonies in the death of Alexavier Pedrin, a 6-year-old boy his family called AJ. He died on February 11, 2023, inside a home in the town of Medary, outside La Crosse, where Dikeman was caring for a blended household of children. Prosecutors alleged first-degree intentional homicide, chronic neglect of a child resulting in death, and physical abuse of a child through repeated acts causing death. An autopsy attributed the death to blunt force trauma, cataloging a torn liver, a fractured rib, head and neck injuries, and elevated levels of alprazolam, the drug sold as Xanax, in the boy's system. The State alleged that Dikeman inflicted a pattern of violence on AJ and was the only adult present when he became unresponsive. Dikeman pleaded not guilty and was presumed innocent throughout.

The trial centered on a single question with no adult eyewitness to answer it: who killed AJ during the roughly 15 hours between a sheriff's welfare check that left him sleeping and the 911 call the next morning. Prosecutors leaned on the autopsy, on a delayed call to emergency services, and on children from the home who told investigators they had seen Dikeman hit, choke, and kick the boy. The defense pointed instead at AJ's father, Derek Pedrin, who carried a documented history of domestic violence and was arrested hours before his son was found dead. Both sides needed the child witnesses. Both leaned on expert testimony to explain injuries no adult admitted to causing. The State also entered the courtroom weighted by a pretrial setback, after the judge excluded a child abuse expert over a discovery failure.

Justice Is A Process watched this trial because child homicide cases are where public certainty runs hottest and where due process is tested hardest. A mother wrote from prison warning that AJ was in danger. A grandmother reported it. A cousin called for a welfare check the night before he died. The information existed, and the child died anyway. Our coverage tracked whether the State could prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt, how the child witnesses held up, and whether the alternative-suspect theory raised real doubt. The full coverage below follows the trial through to how it resolved.