Inset: Kasiem Stephens (Colleton County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The mobile home community where Stephens killed a 4-year-old boy in Walterboro, S.C. (Google Maps).
A South Carolina man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the brutal beating death of his girlfriend’s son, prosecutors announced.
On Thursday, Kasiem Rashawn Stephens, 32, was convicted on one count each of homicide by child abuse and unlawful neglect of a child by a jury of his peers in a Colleton County courtroom.
The defendant was subsequently sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Carmen T. Mullen to life without the possibility of parole on the homicide count and an additional 10 years on the neglect count, according to court records reviewed by Law&Crime.
“A little boy’s life was cut short at the hands of someone who was supposed to take care of him,” 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office Prosecutor Tameaka A. Legette said. “Instead, this child was met with a type of violence that none of us should ever have to experience.”
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The underlying incident took the life of 4-year-old Ki’Zadyn Shuler – and severely injured the slain little boy’s older sister.
On Aug. 17, 2017, Ki’Zadyn arrived unresponsive, unconscious and in cardiac arrest at the Colleton County Medical Center. While life-saving measures were performed, he was pronounced dead.
An ensuing investigation by county and state law enforcement determined Stephens was responsible for the children that day.
Authorities determined the child had been beaten to death with an electrical cord – a finding testified to during the defendant’s trial by a forensic pathologist from the Medical University of South Carolina.
“She further testified that the boy died of blunt head and neck trauma from a beating, with acute injuries covering the boy’s body,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release announcing the sentencing.
At the residence on Novits Cook Court in Walterboro, investigators discovered a burnt electrical cord, a charred children’s mattress and a leather belt among other items in a large burn pile.
The boy’s older sister, who was 6 years old at the time, also suffered several injuries on the day her brother was killed – including abrasions and bruising. The mother of the children, Francesca Michelle Shuler, 34, was charged in connection with her daughter’s injuries and previously pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful neglect of a child. During Stephens’ trial, she testified against her former boyfriend.
On the day of the incident, the couple were arrested roughly four hours after the child died.
The little boy was remembered fondly by his family in comments to Charleston-based CBS affiliate WCSC.
“Every time we would come he would run up to the car and say ‘Hey! Hey!,'” his aunt told the TV station. “[He would] ask about the puppies.”
Ki’Zadyn’s uncle added: “[He was] very much an outdoor boy. Very loving and playful. He was just innocent and happy.”
