Farmington • "I’m having fun with Nathan," 4-year-old Ethan Stacy says to the video camera in a small scratchy voice. "He’s not scary anymore."
The cell phone video message — taken by Ethan’s stepfather Nathan Sloop and intended for his mother, Stephanie Sloop — was taken a week before the young boy’s beaten body was found in a shallow grave near Powder Mountain Ski Resort on May 11, 2010.
In the video — shown Tuesday during a preliminary hearing for Nathan Sloop, charged with murder in the boy’s death — shows the blond-haired boy in Spiderman pajamas. His cheeks and lips appear red and possibly swollen.
At the end of Nathan Sloop’s three-day preliminary hearing, which began Wednesday, 2nd District Judge Glen Dawson will decide if there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.
During opening statements Wednesday, defense attorney Richard Mauro said the medical examiner’s office found that Ethan died from an overdose of over-the-counter medications — including Benadryl, children’s Tylenol and a decongestant — not child abuse.
Mauro said Nathan Sloop, 34, and Stephanie Sloop, 30, were concerned with their ability to care for Ethan, whom Mauro said had "behavioral problems," and had sought help before Ethan came to them for the summer as part of a visitation agreement with Ethan’s father. Mauro also said Nathan Sloop had been receiving mental health treatment for 12 years and was taking a large number of prescribed medications at the time of Ethan’s death. . . .
While officers searched for the young boy, detectives interviewed the couple and asked them questions that are routine when a child is missing: What was he wearing? What does he like to play?
Neither of the two were helpful, Roderick said, and Nathan Sloop referred to Ethan in past tense —"To me, he enjoyed life," he told an investigator in a taped interview.
It wasn’t until Stephanie Sloop made mention of a body, Roderick said, that the investigation turned from reverse 911 calls and checking sex offenders’ homes to focusing instead on the newly married couple.
Roderick said detectives told Nathan Sloop that his wife had told them about a body and that it could be found near 12th Street in Ogden. Nathan Sloop told them he would lead them to the gravesite.
"I know where to dig the body out," Nathan Sloop told the investigators. "I’ll dig the body out as soon as I hear Stephanie say it … I’ll tell you exactly where the f---ing body is."
Nathan Sloop was then loaded into a patrol car, Roderick said, and was brought to the area in Weber County where Ethan was buried.
With his hands cuffed and shackled to his waist, Nathan Sloop then led investigators to the grave site, Roderick said — a site marked with sticks and dog food that had been sprinkled over where the body was buried.
Roderick said after Nathan Sloop was taken away from the site, and investigators began digging in the area, they found more than just the 4-year-old’s body.
"Basically, [the grave site] was in layers," he said. "Starting at the bottom you had the plastic tote that Ethan was carried up in, and then different things layered with items that had been used to take care of Ethan."
Items found in the gravesite included a curtain, a broken hammer with blood on it, a lighter fluid bottle, an ammonia bottle, a burned glove, a shovel head, a duct tape roll and Ethan’s sweatshirt with "Florida" printed on it. . . .
On Wednesday, several clips of interviews with police investigators and Nathan Sloop were played.
Nathan Sloop, stuttering in many of his responses, admits that he had slapped Ethan multiple times, said Stephanie Sloop slapped her son as well, and he admitted putting feces in the boy’s mouth to discipline him. . . .
