Jake Cooper Felt Conflicted About Fatherhood Before Being Charged With 7MO's Murder

[Sugar Cookie]

Text message conversations between a Jackson father of three accused of killing his youngest child and their mother show he felt conflicted about fatherhood, writing he wasn’t good enough.

The trial of Jake Alton Cooper continued Thursday, May 14, before Jackson County Circuit Judge Susan Jordan with witness testimony from a state police analyst followed by the mother of his children, Jenna Nastally.

The trial began with opening statements Monday, May 11, and continued with witness testimony from first responders, doctors and medical examiners.

Cooper, 26, is charged with one count of open murder and first-degree child abuse for the 2023 death of his daughter, 7-month-old Imani Cooper.

The prosecution argues Imani died as the result of abuse, noting how doctors found the child’s bowels had been perforated, which damaged her internal organs and caused her body to become septic.

The defense argues Imani’s death was caused by a twist in her intestines brought on by her early birth.

Danielle Vandenheuvel, a digital forensic analyst for the Michigan State Police, testified she pulled data from Cooper and Nastally’s cell phones. The data pull was requested by the Jackson Police Department which was investigating Imani’s death.

Text message conversations between the couple in the months and weeks leading up to Imani’s death showed Cooper was growing frustrated at being a stay-at-home father.

“I miss our time so much. I need to go away. I don’t want to ruin these kids’ lives,” Vandenheuvel said reading one of their text exchanges.

Cooper would regularly message Nastally during the day, sending her pictures and videos of the kids when she was on a break at work.

In one conversation, Cooper admitted to using a belt to discipline one of the children who was biting another. Nastally was not OK with that and told him he had to leave when she got home, according to the text messages.

Cooper denied hurting his children followed by another message saying he was suicidal.

Nastally wrote Cooper saying he needed to be more careful with the kids and she was afraid for them.

“I was never worried about my children’s safety where it could end in tragedy,” Nastally testified.

Nastally said she came home from work at about 8 p.m., March 22, 2023, and found Imani unresponsive in her swing in the living room.

“I went to pick her up and she was this funny color, pale, grayish and making a grunting noise. I started freaking out,” Nastally said. “I took her from room to room thinking maybe the lighting was off and I was seeing something that wasn’t real. Like was I just being a hypochondriac?”

The couple were both in a panic before calling Nastally’s mother who told them to call 911. Nastally kept asking Cooper what happened, but he seemed just as scared and confused as she was, she said.

Paramedics arrived and, after a short evaluation, rushed Imani to Henry Ford Jackson Hospital for emergency treatment.

Hours later, Imani was transferred to C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor where they attempted lifesaving surgery.

“I was told she had a 50/50 shot of surviving, but they never explained why she needed the surgery,” Nastally said.

Imani did not survive and was pronounced dead March 23, 2023.

An autopsy showed bleeding around Imani’s chest, ribcage and her mesentery, the tissue that holds the intestines in place, said Dr. Catherine Perez, an assistant medical examiner who performed the autopsy.

Perez also found calluses on three of Imani’s ribs, indicating they had been fractured before and were healing. Perez said she would not expect to see fractures there, noting infant bones are flexible and not easily fractured.


Perez ruled the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the abdomen. Manner of death, homicide.

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https://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/2026/05/text-messages-show-father-felt-conflicted-about-fatherhood-before-being-charged-with-murder.html

 

[Busy Bee]

He has three children and decided he was conflicted about fatherhood!! The mum was at work and he was the childcare?? I wonder if he was employed??? I would think with the facial tattoos it may be difficult to get employment? ? I’ve been in the corporate world for 40 years and have never seen a facial tattoo on an employee? Am I old fashioned, probably. Just seems it would make it more difficult. I find this all very sad! Never hit a wee babe or any child!! She suffered a painful death!

 

[Metalfan]

Someone blasted diarrhea through a fan,directly on his face!