The appeals court cited two pieces of information that resonated with judges: Ruby Stephens said her husband was unhappy because the pregnancy was the result of an extra-marital affair, according to Facebook messages introduced as evidence during the trial, and after the baby had died, Stephens reassured her that he had purchased a $10,000 life-insurance policy from the Gerber Life Insurance Co. on the infant and the couple’s two children.
Witnesses testified at the trial they overheard Stephens tell his wife, “Don’t worry, we have life insurance,” when she expressed concerns about the couple’s finances.
The letter purportedly written by Mrs. Stephens said she slept with a man she identified as “Danny” while Stephens was in the hospital. Prosecutors said the man was Danny Thomas.
“Roy Stephens was the baby's father for all intents and purposes,” prosecutor Mark Levine told jurors at the trial. “Danny Thomas was completely, played no role whatsoever in this child's life.”
In the interview, Stephens said his wife’s affair was not a reason to starve Betsey.
“Why would I hurt any child? They are gifts from God,” Stephens wrote in a message from prison to Fresh Take Florida, a news service operated by the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. “I loved Betsey as my own. I bought the breast pump the same day she was born with her other things she needed. I am not a bad guy.”
Stephens notified Gerber about Betsey’s death to collect the $10,000 three days after she died. His sister, Jeanie Stephens, said investigators took that out of context, adding that Stephens was planning to cover the financial fallout after the girl’s death.
“I was the one who told him to call the life insurance company and let them know that Betsey passed away,” she said in an interview. “I was trying to take their mind off of the situation at hand and trying to think of ways to help them deal with it.”
The couple’s biological children, R.J. and Rubylyn, live with Jeanie Stephens. She said Gerber never paid the $10,000 life insurance payout, and she has paid all their expenses since 2014.
“The state had told me if I don't adopt these kids, that they have somebody waiting,” she said.
In his legal appeal, Stephens said prosecutors had insufficient evidence against him and added that it was unclear exactly when on the car trip – and where – Betsey died, raising jurisdictional issues. The appeals court ruled against him on both questions.
Ruby had unsuccessfully raised similar issues in her own appeal, arguing that she shouldn’t have been charged with murder and aggravated manslaughter involving a child.
“You can’t charge someone with both murder and manslaughter because it is double jeopardy,” she said in a prison interview, disputing the appeals court’s ruling on the subject. She added: “If she died of starvation or child neglect then the murder charge needs to be dropped, and I need to be resentenced.”
Stephens’ own most significant arguments in his appeal involved what he said were his wife’s admissions. He cited what he described as a jailhouse confession letter that the appeals court said minimized Mrs. Stephens’ culpability by saying she accidentally starved Betsey because of difficulties she had breastfeeding. The appeals judges said it would not have been enough to overturn Stephens’ convictions.
“The letter fails to cast doubt upon the theory that Stephens knew of the victim’s condition and failed to intervene before her death,” judges wrote.
Stephens also said his wife told a cellmate, Alicia Jones, that she did not feed the baby and that the family was driving with the infant already dead. She also reportedly said Stephens was unaware the infant wasn’t nursing.
“She said she really wasn’t breastfeeding the baby, like five minutes here, a few minutes here, a few minutes there, but it takes more,” Jones said in an interview with prosecutors, according to court records. “She just said that Roy was telling her to feed the baby, but she was just giving it just a suck here and a suck there.”
At the trial, Jones declined to testify.
“My wife told one of her cellmates how she hid this from me, and the judge would not let her tell how my wife hid all this from me,” Stephens said.
The appeals court said Mrs. Stephens made the statements when she was “very highly sedated” and that they contradicted other evidence in the case, ruling that her comments were “not sufficiently trustworthy.”
Eight years later, Stephens’ sister said friends and family members had no clue that Betsey was starving during her brief life. She refuses to believe the infant’s death was intentional.
“My brother and sister-in-law knew that if they took a sick baby to me, I would report them myself,” she said. “So why in the heck would they come to Florida and show me a sick baby?”