• You must be logged in to see or use the Shoutbox. Besides, if you haven't registered, you really should. It's quick and it will make your life a little better. Trust me. So just register and make yourself at home with like-minded individuals who share either your morbid curiousity or sense of gallows humor.
here is what i don't understand. i agree with @Nell, and really, why take it to a hospital. you did not feed your infant since it was born and now .... well what? hope they can bring it back to life? feel the need for prison? what? what exactly did they expect?
 
Especially after the video where it came out that they hide food at the dumpster to avoid the food inspectors.
disgusted4sho look it up on you tube...I swear when the news broke people were calling in to MSN from around the country to say that the locations they worked at did this also. There is true footage an employee took.
 
Indicted.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20150116/NEWS/150119537

BARTOW | A grand jury indicted a couple Thursday in the starvation death of a 22-day-old baby in their custody just days before Christmas.

Roy and Ruby Stephens, 48 and 23, respectively, are both facing charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child in the death of Betsy Kee Stephens on Dec. 23.

Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Vera Volnikh said Betsey died from "starvation due to neglect," and her manner of death was "homicide," reports state.
 
Roy Stephens, who's accused of starving his newborn infant to death last December, will remain in jail without bond until he stands trial, a circuit judge ruled Friday.

Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen stated in his ruling that the presumption of guilt is great enough to justify holding Stephens in custody.

In a hearing earlier in the day, Stephens' lawyers had sought pretrial release for him, saying the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on the 22-day-old baby, Betsey Kee Stephens, hadn't adequately explored other causes for her death. But Jacobsen rejected that argument.

Defense lawyer Byron Hileman, representing Stephens, said he wasn't surprised by the judge's ruling, in part because the state is seeking the death penalty against his client.

"The granting of bond in a death penalty case is extremely rare," he said Friday. "I know of one case in 40 years. But the hearing did give us an idea of the state's theory in the case, and that will help us in preparing our defense."

Stephens, 48, and his 23-year-old wife, Ruby, of Tennyson, Ind., were visiting family in Polk County last Christmas when they told emergency responders in Lakeland their 22-day-old baby, Betsey, had stopped breathing.

An autopsy revealed the baby weighed only 4 pounds and 1 ounce, and she had no food in her stomach or intestines, indicating she hadn't been fed for at least a day, according to testimony Friday.

Stephens and his wife told authorities the baby had been fed regularly since she was born Dec. 1, and had been breastfed as recently as two hours before she died, police reports said.

Both Ruby and Roy Stephens are charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both.

Both will be back in court for a status hearing May 7.

In Friday's hearing, Associate Medical Examiner Vera Volnikh testified the baby had lost 36 percent of her birth weight by the time she died on Dec. 23.

"She was extremely dehydrated," Volnikh said. "There is no fat tissue on the baby. You can see the outline of the bone under the skin. There's no fat in the cheeks."

Most babies lose about 5 percent of their birth weight in the first couple weeks of life, she said, but 36 percent was extremely abnormal. Hileman asked Volnikh if she considered other causes for the child's condition, including failure-to-thrive syndrome. He suggested through a litany of questions that the medical examiner didn't probe far enough before ruling the cause of death as starvation by neglect.

"Her investigation of causability was limited to routine tests," Hileman said in his argument to Jacobsen.

Volnikh said she checked for parasites and infection in the baby's gastrointestinal system, and looked for genetic abnormalities.

"This child didn't have any," she said. She said those issues generally lead to a slow decline in health.

"This child was 22 days old," she said. "Any mother could see that this baby is not gaining weight."

Assistant State Attorney John Waters argued the baby's empty stomach and bladder provided medical evidence that she wasn't being fed. He also cited the Stephens' efforts to collect on a $10,000 life insurance policy on their daughter the day after she died.
http://m.theledger.com/Section/568/Article/150329361
 
I had a Couple of theories as I was reading through all the articles and comments and I was planning on writing them once I got to the end.. BUT.. all those theories went out the window when I read this last article... They tried collecting on a 10,000.. Life insurance policy a day after the baby died.... I dont know their money situation but something tells me they are low income.. Or living pay check to paycheck.. Maybe even welfare... And although life insurance is the responsible thing to do.. Many of us could never afford it... Hell I struggled to keep diapers on their Butts....
Im convinced they planned this babies murder for a lousy 10,000..they both deserve the dp...
 
Many of us could never afford it... Hell I struggled to keep diapers on their Butts....
Im convinced they planned this babies murder for a lousy 10,000..
Not that I don't agree with what you are saying but I would guess that the life insurance was one of those Gerber policies that are $1 a month for the first year or something like that. The ones that are advertised on TV and the hospitals hand out pamphlets on them.

My theory is they were welfare garbage and they simply didn't give a fuck to actually take care of their child. They were inconvenienced by the baby or something stupid like that.

Regardless I want them both dead, they have simply forfeited the right to oxygen in my opinion.
 
Soooo, was the baby for a fact
his or not?

I was thinking maybe it was his baby but they neglected her because she was a girl. It doesn't mention the other two kids gender, that were taken care of. I bet they were boys. If it wasn't the husbands kid why would he give the baby his last name? Unless he found out at some point in the 22days that she wasn't his.
 
I was thinking maybe it was his baby but they neglected her because she was a girl. It doesn't mention the other two kids gender, that were taken care of. I bet they were boys. If it wasn't the husbands kid why would he give the baby his last name? Unless he found out at some point in the 22days that she wasn't his.


I'm not positive on This because it was about 12 years ago.. But I knew someone who was dating a married woman who was separated at the time.. Well she got pregnant but before she gave birth she got back with the husband and because she was legally married.. The husband had to be in the birth certificate until a court ordered Dna test proves other wise.... Someone else might have a better knowledge of the law than my long ago memory..
 
Three in a row... 25 years difference in age... My daughter had anal prolapse & a severe allergy to milk, soy- goats milk. She had to be on some crazy stuff but, as parents- as a 27 year old single parent I KNEW- Christ there were two of them... it wasn't her first rodeo!!
 
Dec 7, 2017

Roy Stephens convicted of first-degree murder in the starvation death of his wife’s 22-day-old daughter three years ago.

Stephens, 51, was automatically sentenced to life imprisonment after the jury returned its verdict, since prosecutors weren’t seeking the death penalty.

The jury also convicted him of aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child, which are both first-degree felonies. Circuit Judge Andrew J. Decker III in Hamilton County sentenced him Wednesday to 30 years for each of those convictions, to run consecutive to the life sentence.

Authorities arrested Stephens and his 23-year-old wife, Ruby, after they called 911 because their daughter was unresponsive. The child weighed only 4 pounds, reflecting a 2-pound weight loss since her birth three weeks earlier. She also was dehydrated and had nothing in her stomach or large intestines when she arrived at Lakeland Regional Medical Center, suggesting she hadn’t been fed for at least six hours.

Bartow lawyer David Carmichael, representing Stephens, had argued that his client wasn’t aware that Ruby Stephens was neglecting the child, and she had acted on her own. He also said Roy Stephens was in the hospital for 10 days after the baby was born and wasn’t aware that the child’s mother wasn’t taking care of her.

Assistant State Attorney Hope Pattey told jurors that Roy Stephens resented his wife and the baby because she had become pregnant during an extra-marital affair.

Ruby Stephens, 26, also is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child and aggravated child abuse, and faces mandatory life imprisonment if convicted. No trial date has been set in her case.
http://www.newschief.com/news/20171...ng-death-of-infant-taken-to-lakeland-hospital
 
Take Blubber Guts and drop him in a shark tank.
Cement fill her birth canal.
Wait no...scratch that.

Kill her instead.
 
January 26, 2018

An Indiana woman has been sentenced to life in prison for starving her newborn daughter to death in Florida.

The Ledger reports that Ruby Stephens, 26, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.

Authorities say the child had been conceived while Ruby Stephens was having an extramarital affair.

Roy Stephens received a life sentence after being convicted last month of first-degree murder and other charges. He testified that he didn't know his wife wasn't feeding the baby and had accepted the child as his daughter.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/florida/woman-gets-life-for-starving-baby-to-death-in-florida
n-RUBY-ANGELINE-STEPHENS-628x314.jpg

Ugly inside and out
 
Life plus 60, consecutive.
Life.

I’ll take it. No more buffets..

That’s gonna hurt him worse, I’m guessing, than being locked up.
 
A Tennyson, Indiana man convicted of starving his 22-day-old daughter to death will remain behind bars for life after a Florida appeals court rejected his arguments that his young wife confessed responsibility.

In an interview, 55-year-old Roy A. Stephens portrayed himself as a caring father who was unaware the infant – who weighed only 4 pounds – had gone more than a day without nursing.
Stephens had hoped for a new trial, citing what he said was newly discovered evidence after his 2017 conviction in Polk County, Florida: a letter found in his wife’s cell after his trial that he characterized as a confession that she was responsible, and testimony from her cellmate that he said exonerated him.
“I should have been listening to him when he kept telling me to feed her instead of just keep putting the pacifier in her mouth,” said the handwritten letter, dated April 13, 2017. “I know I should have done more to take care of her the right way.”

It added: “My husband was trying to help me, but I wasn’t seeing it at the time,” and “I was the one responsible for her because she was my daughter.”

“I do not want him to spend any time in jail or prison for something that he had no part of,” the letter said.

In a 23-page decision, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeals in Florida last week unanimously shot down every one of Stephens’ arguments.
“I don't know where else to turn,” Stephens said after the ruling in an interview by phone and email with the Fresh Take Florida news service from the Liberty Correctional Institution in Bristol, west of Tallahassee.

The appeals court upheld Stephens’ convictions of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child in the death of the infant, Betsey Kee Stephens, who died in December 2014. Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for Stephens.
His estranged wife, Ruby, 30, pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison at the Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, on the same charges. Her similar appeals have also failed. Both have no possibility of parole.

Authorities said Betsey was dead, already cold to the touch, when Stephens called 911 from the parking lot of a restaurant in Lakeland, Florida where the family had made a long drive from their home in Southwestern Indiana to meet Stephens’ sister, Jeanie Stephens, 49. First responders performed CPR, but she was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

“No parent could look at the victim and determine that she was fine,” the appeals judges wrote, citing testimony from the medical examiner. They said the infant’s bones were visible in many areas, and her skin was hanging and wrinkled because of a lack of fat.

She weighed 4 pounds, about two less than when she was born. The medical examiner said it would have taken roughly 12 days – more than half her short life – being starved for her to lose that much weight.


“It was the worst day of my career,” Officer Bradley Dollison of the Lakeland Police Department remembered in court interviews, describing “complete sadness” and “something that I’ll never forget.”

Nurses and paramedics testified at the trial they had never seen an infant so malnourished as Betsey, describing her as skeletal with sunken eyes. They said it was clear she was already dead “for some period of time” before they arrived at the restaurant, according to court records. The couple’s other two young children appeared normal, they said.

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?”
Stephens doesn’t know what his next legal course might be. He said he longs for the day he can see his surviving children again in person.

“I would like to be a father to my children,” he said. “I don't know what I have anymore. The sad part is when Betsey passed, my two children lost not only their sister but their mother and father.”
 
Back
Top