Whisper Hawkbear was sentenced to 100 years in the Montana Women’s Prison, with no time suspended, on June 23 for the death of her two-month-old son.
Hawkbear won’t be eligible for parole for the first 30 years of her sentence.
She was credited for the 795 days she’s already served in the county jail since being arrested in April 2023.
In 2023, Hawkbear told investigators that she had thrown the two-month-old into a wall, hit him with a playpen and stomped on his head, and threw the 16-month-old against a wall and into a mirror, according to court documents.
Judge John Parker issued the sentence after hearing about an hour and a half of testimony from the lawyers, the baby’s family, Hawbear’s stepmother and the surviving child’s foster parent.
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Hawkbear had been charged with felony assault for the injuries she caused to her 16-month-old daughter but prosecutors dropped that charge in exchange for her guilty plea to deliberate homicide, which she entered in March.
Prosecutors did not make a sentencing recommendation, but advised the court of any mitigating or aggravating factors during the sentencing hearing.
Hawkbear’s attorneys requested a 60 year sentence to the Montana Women’s Prison with 40 years suspended.
The defense attorney’s argued that Hawkbear had been abused throughout her life, her parents had been incarcerated, she was exposed to drugs at a young age and had been in and out of foster care, group homes and institutions for most of her life.
At the time of the incident that left two-month-old Ezekiel Contreras dead and her 16-month-old daughter severely injured, Hawkbear was 20.
During the June 24 sentencing hearing, Hawkbear, now 22, said, “I have to live with this every day. I do realize I can’t take back what happened. I do want to change and continue my treatment goals.”
She said that the Contreras family deserves justice and “I will take responsibility for my actions.”
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Kaleb Larson, a Great Falls Police officer, has been the foster family for Hawkbear’s daughter since the April 2023 incident.
Testifying for the prosecution, Larson said he and his wife are certified foster parents, so the state asked them to take the girl. He said his wife went to the hospital immediately after receiving the call.
The girl’s nose had nearly been ripped off since Hawkbear smashed her into a mirror, but medical staff were able to sew it back on, Larson said.
She had a broken clavicle, severe concussion and significant bruising.
The girl didn’t like people touching her and would hold back showing tears or emotion, which Larson said was a symptom of the abuse.
When they brought the girl home, Larson said she couldn’t talk, crawl or eat solid foods. She had night terrors and some nights she couldn’t sleep alone, needing to be in their bed, touching her foster parents, to know she was safe.
After two years, she’s sleeping better and has physically improved, but will likely need counseling for the rest of her life, Larson said.
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She struggles to play with other children at home and daycare, getting scared, and reacts to conflict with scratching, biting or hitting, he said.
Now three years old, Larson said he and his wife work to teach her appropriate ways to handle conflict and she’s making progress with her counselor.
The “trauma still lingers,” Larson said, and she frequently speaks of “scary coming to get her.”
The months of abuse have left physical and emotional scars, Larson said, and “she will never get to experience the same joys” as other children.
To Hawkbear, Larson said she murdered the girl’s brother and “put scars on her body, you broke her bones.”
Sophia Contreras, Ezekiel’s grandmother, submitted a written statement.
She attended the hearing by Zoom and asked Kory Larsen, the prosecutor, to read her letter in court.
Contreras wrote that Ezekiel’s life had been stolen from him and he “never got to take his first steps, say his first words. He was helpless, defenseless and completely innocent.”
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Since his death, Contreras wrote, “my heart has been shattered beyond repair. Grief is overwhelming” and it’s an “unbearable sorrow. There’s no peace, no closure, only the ache knowing Zeke should be here and he is not. His loss will never be forgotten. He was loved deeply and is missed every single day.”
Asking the court for the strongest possible sentence, Sophia Contreras wrote that “you are a monster, a poor excuse for a mother” and “deserve no mercy or forgiveness.”
Larsen also read a letter from Angel Contreras, Ezekiel’s father, who is now 24.
He wrote that Hawkbear had become pregnant shortly after they met and he was “looking forward to being the dad I never really had. I was looking forward to experiencing fatherhood to the fullest extent.”
He wrote that his son’s birth was the best day of his life and it was all taken away.
“You were supposed to love and protect him,” Angel Contreras wrote to Hawkbear.
The “grief is suffocating and I don’t know how I will ever heal. I am what is left of my son’s voice,” Angel Contreras wrote. “The pain is forever and her punishment should reflect that and be the same.”
Twila Johnke, Hawkbear’s stepmother, testified for the defense.
Johnke said that Hawbear had suffered trauma and abuse growing up and also endured abuse by Ezekiel’s father.
Larson told The Electric that Hawkbear had made complaints that Angel Contreras had abused her, but they had no evidence to bring charges.
Johnke said that Hawkbear suffered from postpartum depression and that she wanted to be a good mom.
“It breaks my heart because the only thing she wanted was to be a good mom,” Johnke said.
She said that Hawkbear had called 911 for help and no one came and was struggling as a 20-year-old mom with two babies.
“Not that that’s an excuse,” Johnke said. “She’s not the monster that she’s painted out to be. She’s a good person. She tried calling for help before this happened.”
Larsen, the prosecutor, said that his office was not making specific recommendations for sentencing, but spoke to aggravating factors in the case including that Hawkbear had a self reported history of substance abuse, was self medicating, the “horrific nature of the injuries,” the impact to those involved in the case, including first responders, investigators and those providing care.
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Ben Reed, one of Hawkbear’s defense attorney’s, said that they understand the significant trauma to the victims and secondary trauma to the first responders.
In asking for a 60 year sentence with 40 years suspended, Reed said it may appear “inappropriately low” but that her personal history was “horrific” and one that was “survived and endured.”
She suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse, Reed said, and was placed in a group home by age 14, spending the majority of her life in some form of institution.
Her parents were in and out of custody and were substance abusers. Hawkbear first smoked marijuana at 12 and was soon after exposed to alcohol and other drugs, Reed said.
After aging out of a youth facility, she returned to Montana with no access to support or services and found herself homeless and lost in addiction in Billings.
She made it to Great Falls, established a life, Reed said, and by 20, had two children. She’d only completed ninth grade.
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services had worked with Hawkbear, both as a juvenile herself and as a single mom.
But the state’s resources are strained and when their services were provided, they were not systematic or sustained, Reed said.
Through the presentence investigation, it was reported that she struggles with self harm, anger and trauma.
Hawkbear had aged out of facilities and was displaced from treatment so was unable to work through her issues, Reed said.
At the time of the April 2023 incident, Hawkbear was suffering from severe postpartum depression, was estranged from Angel Contreras, had limited support from family, had turned to drugs to self medicate and “was ill equipped to deal with what she was dealing with.”
Reed said that the drug use likely made her mental state worse and “what we have here is the worst case scenario of that sort of thing.”
Sam Martin, Reed’s co-counsel defending Hawkbear, said that she had called 911 early that morning asking for help and had reached out to others in the days leading up to Ezekiel’s death.
She ultimately canceled her request for help from GFPD, according to dispatch records.
GFPD officers responded to another call at 4:15 a.m. at Hawkbear’s apartment.
Martin said that Contreras had been trying to reach her, but Hawkbear refused his calls.
GFPD responded to a welfare check at an apartment at 2215 23rd Ave. S. at 4:15 a.m. on April 21, 2023.
Hawkbear had called 911 around 2:30 a.m., but told dispatchers she would go to the hospital and the call was canceled, according to court documents and testimony during the June 23 hearing.
When officers responded to the second call, during which Hawkbear told dispatchers that she had killed her kids, she initially wouldn’t let them into the apartment, according to initial court documents.
Once she let them into the apartment, she handed a two-month-old baby to one of the officers. Blood was coming from the infant’s face and officers started CPR on the baby, according to court documents.
Hawkbear reportedly said, “I just beat him up for like five seconds, he’s dead isn’t he.”
A 16-month-old child was crying in the bedroom and had blood on her face and a laceration to her nose.
The two-month-old was transported to the Benefis Health System emergency department where he was pronounced dead at 5:17 a.m., according to charging documents.
During the investigation, officers learned the children’s father was out of state and had called in a welfare check on April 19 stating Hawkbear had been using drugs and he was concerned about her ability to care for the children, according to court documents.
Hawkbear was taken to the GFPD for an interview that morning during which she told investigators she had called dispatch around 2:30 a.m. because she has PTSD and anxiety and she wanted to sleep but the children wouldn’t stop crying.
Hawkbear told investigators that she had thrown the two-month-old into a wall, hit him with a playpen and stomped on his head, and threw the 16-month-old against a wall and into a mirror, according to court documents.
During the interview, she told investigators she had been planning on killing both her kids and herself since February 2023.
Hawkbear told investigators that she knew the two-month-old was dead and put him under the bed.
The children stopped crying and Hawkbear went to sleep, according to court documents. She woke up around 4:15 a.m., found the two-month-old and called 911, according to court documents.
The tragedy is more than a woman murdering her child, Martin said during the June 23 hearing, in that it was the breakdown of guardrails that should have protected her and her children.
Given her life experience, it made sense that she wouldn’t reach out to police or Ezekiel’s father initially for help.
Martin said that she didn’t act with malice or deliberation, but it was the result of a parent unable to cope.
Ezekiel’s “death deeply affected first responders and on some level everyone who’s had to be a part of this case,” Martin said. “She recognizes she’s a flawed individual and needs help. No one wants this outcome, including Whisper.”
Hawkbear’s lawyers said incarceration is appropriate and that their recommendation holds her accountable, but the court can’t hold her more accountable than she holds herself.
“She wakes up and thinks about this every day, she lives with this every day,” Martin said. “It’s not something she has forgotten, it’s not something she will forget. Whisper is horrified by her own actions.”
Her lawyers argued that with treatment and supervision, Hawkbear could return to society and make a positive contribution, rather than simply act as a cautionary tale.
“Society has enough of those,” Martin said.
In sentencing Hawkbear, Parker said he considered state law and policy on sentencing, with attention to the provision that punishment should be commensurate with the nature and degree of harm and accountability.
The nature and degree was “tragic and devastating,” Parker said, as a “defenseless two month old baby was brutally killed by his own mother.”
Every homicide presents shocking facts, Parker said, and “this one certainly is a completely shocking tragic situation,” with an “immense psychological impact on a number of family members,” as well as first responders.
To the family of those involved and first responders, Parker said “my heart goes out to you.”
Parker said he considered victim impact statements provided in court during the June 23 hearing, facts of the case and case law presented by both parties.
Parker ordered that Hawkbear pay $2,392.39 in restitution to the Montana Crime Victim Compensation Program.
To Hawkbear, he said, “I hope in some way you can move forward with your own life.”
Parker said that people spoke in her defense, seeing good in her and he appreciated that she took responsibility for her crime.
Considering Hawkbear had suffered abuse, including from Ezekial’s father, that she had no criminal history, her mental health evaluations and while those factors “doesn’t excuse the conduct. We have to let things be as painful as they are, we have to ponder the entire situation,” Parker said. “No one person will be satisfied with the sentence being pronounced because so many people have suffered in so many different ways.”
For anyone in need of support, Toby’s House is a local crisis nursery providing urgent or emergency care for children ages 0-6 for a few hours, or all day, at no cost to families.
The facility is located at 421 5th St. N. and be reached at 406-770-3191 or director@tobyshousemt.org.
