JEREMIAH SWAFFORD - 2 yo (2009) - Shelby NC

After hearing more than five days of testimony, a Cleveland County jury will now decide the fate of Dwight Stacy Justice, who is charged with the beating death of his 2-year-old stepson Jeremiah Swafford in 2009.
The defense rested its case around 11 a.m. Wednesday and closing arguments began at 2 p.m. Deliberations began shortly after 4 p.m.

If found guilty of first-degree murder, Justice faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. He's also charged with felony child abuse.

His wife, Kathy Lynn Swafford, faces similar charges and will be tried in March.

In his closing argument, defense attorney Ted Cummings told the jury that Justice didn't take the witness stand because he'd already said everything he knew about the case in three interviews conducted by law enforcement officers.

"He can't tell you any more," said Cummings. "He's said, 'I didn't do it and I didn't see her (Swafford) do it.' "

A medical examiner has testified Jeremiah died on Feb. 14, 2009, of blunt force trauma to the head resulting in swelling of the brain.

Cummings replayed the 911 tape for the jury on Wednesday, asking them to listen closely to the first few seconds, when, he said, Kathy Swafford could be heard in the background

In the tape, Justice told the dispatcher the toddler was sick and maybe had fallen out of bed. As he talks, a woman moans, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

During the playing of the tape, Justice rested his head in his hand, staring at the table.

Cummings said the evidence showed that Justice was out of the apartment for a period of time on the evening of Feb. 12 and was gone about 45 minutes the following morning to take his 8-year-old son to school.

In his remarks, Cummings reviewed Tuesday's testimony from Jeanette Bonner, who said that while she was an inmate at the Cleveland County Detention Center, Swafford told her that she had picked Jeremiah up by his feet and slammed his head into the wooden part of a couch.

"Was it an accident?" he asked. "Did she mean to kill him? We don't know. That's a question that will be answered when her trial comes up."

Cleveland County Assistant District Attorney Bill Young told the jury Justice has "never got his story straight."

Young played audio clips to illustrate Justice's inconsistencies in interviews with law enforcement officers.

Young reminded the jury Justice had said he was awakened by his wife around noon on Feb. 13 and found Jeremiah unresponsive in bed. But the 911 call wasn't made until 1:17 p.m.

"What was going on?" Young asked. "The cleanup. The coverup."

Justice's claim that he didn't see blood in Jeremiah's bed was "ridiculous," Young told the jury. "Are we a bunch of idiots? I'm asking you to use your common sense."

Under the law, Young said, Justice is guilty of aiding and abetting even if he didn't physically harm Jeremiah.

Jeremiah, who had a birthday coming up on March 7, 2009, "did not make it to three because the defendant beat him to death or failed in his duty to look after that little boy."

Acts of omission "make him just as guilty," Young said.

Jury deliberations will resume at 9:30 a.m. today.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/01/26/2959205/shelby-jury-to-decide-fate-of.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/01/26/2959205/shelby-jury-to-decide-fate-of.html

Deadlocked: Jury gets more time to decide verdict

Thursday, Jan 26 2012, 6:36 pm

SHELBY — Someone knocked on the door of the jury room seven times throughout Thursday.

Each time, the idle chatter in the courtroom stopped. Spectators looked up from what they were doing. Each time, the bailiff received a hand-written note on lined yellow paper.

None of those notes detailed a verdict in the Dwight Stacy Justice murder trial. After deliberating more than seven hours in two days, the jury hasn't decided whether Justice is guilty in the death of his 2-year-old stepson.

Jurors came out of the jury room into the courtroom nearly a dozen times Thursday, requesting breaks, copies of court transcripts and legal clarification from the judge. They walked about 10 feet from the deliberation room to sit in the jury box’s black swivel chairs and hear clarified instructions from Judge Robert Ervin.

Jeremiah Swafford, Justice’s stepson, died nearly three years ago from blunt-force trauma to the head causing brain swelling. For more than a week, jurors listened to painful testimony from the state claiming Justice abused Jeremiah. Justice’s defense attorney said Kathy Lynn Swafford, Justice’s wife and Jeremiah’s mother, beat Jeremiah to death.

Jury deadlocked 8-4

The verdict hasn’t been an easy one for jurors.

At 2:30 p.m., jurors handed the bailiff a note saying they couldn’t reach a unanimous decision. The jury forewoman told Ervin that the men and women were divided 8-4 in their decision. Jurors must choose whether Justice is guilty of first- or second-degree murder and/or felony child abuse.

Prosecutor Bill Young cited the felony murder rule, which says a defendant can be guilty of first-degree murder if, as a parent or step-parent, he didn't do all he could to protect the child from harm. Justice waited more than an hour to call 911 after he found Jeremiah unresponsive, and that shows Justice is guilty, Young argued.

It appeared much of the jurors’ confusion centered on applying complex legal jargon to Justice’s charges. Young told the jurors Wednesday that they can find Justice guilty of first-degree murder even if he didn’t deliver the fatal blow to Jeremiah.

“Madame Foreperson, you look quite perplexed,” Ervin told the woman charged with speaking for the nine women and three men Thursday.

Jurors appeared increasingly frustrated and tired as Thursday wore on. They crossed their arms and leaned back in their chairs when returning to the jury box. Some jurors glanced knowingly at each other as the judge asked for clarification on their questions.

Even the judge appeared frustrated at one time, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

Justice sat with his attorney, Ted Cummings, his hands clasped in front of him. Sometimes he walked out to the restroom area or sat with supporters on the courtroom benches. He showed little visible emotion each time jurors filed back into the courtroom.

A collection of spectators filtered in and out of the courtroom Thursday as they, too waited for a verdict. Some were from the media; others were from the Justice and Swafford families. Others were simply curious observers.

Justice’s family has filled the left front row of the courtroom every day of his trial.

Donna Willis, Jeremiah's aunt, waited quietly for a verdict in the back of the courtroom Thursday afternoon.

“It’s crazy,” Willis said of the wait. “I don’t see why they have so many questions.”

She described her nephew as a good, sweet child. She said she hoped the jury returned a guilty verdict for Jeremiah’s sake.

Ervin told the court Thursday that he has a prior commitment in Raleigh and won’t be in Cleveland County on Friday. The jury decided not to continue deliberating after 5 p.m. Thursday.

Their deliberation will continue Monday at 9:30 a.m.

http://www.shelbystar.com/articles/jury-61582-click-verdict.html

SHELBY — Dwight Stacy Justice winced as sheriff’s deputies bound his hands behind his back with cuffs.

Deputies led Justice out of the courtroom.

After
deliberating nearly 12 hours over three days, a jury of nine women and
three men didn’t find Justice guilty of murder in the death of his
2-year-old stepson, Jeremiah Swafford. Instead, jurors convicted Justice
of the lesser charge of felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily
injury.

The jury’s decision means Justice won’t serve life in
prison without parole. He faces six to 15 years in prison, pending
sentencing from a judge.

Jurors deliberated for four hours to
reach Monday’s unanimous decision. A division among jurors-- which
started out as 8-4 -- hadn’t changed since deliberation started, the
forewoman told Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin on Thursday.

But something changed in the jury room Monday.

One
juror, who spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity, said jurors had
to compromise to reach a unanimous decision. Three jurors wanted to
acquit Justice, while others wanted to convict him of first- or
second-degree murder.

“I wasn’t going to vote not guilty for sure
— so we made concessions and finally came to that decision,” said the
juror. “Compromised verdict? Yes it was.”

‘Could have, should have’

Jeremiah
Swafford died in February 2009 after blunt-force trauma to the head
caused his brain to swell and cut off his blood supply. Defense attorney
Ted Cummings argued throughout the trial that Kathy Lynn Swafford,
Jeremiah’s mother and Justice’s wife, murdered the toddler.

“He’s upset, clearly, because he says he’s never assaulted the child,” Cummings said after learning of the verdict.

Someone
knocked on the jury room door Monday shortly after noon. The bailiff
answered the door and returned to the courtroom with a yellow sheet of
lined paper. He handed the folded piece of paper to the judge, who
announced that the 12 men and women had come to a unanimous verdict.

Some
time after the verdict was delivered, jurors left the courthouse from a
back exit to avoid reporters, except for the forewoman who answered a
few questions before leaving.

But The Star later talked to the juror who believed the defendant should have been found guilty of murder.

“I
felt like the child was abused before the murder,” the juror told The
Star. “I contended all along that Stacy could have, should have and
didn’t notify somebody that he needed help.”

The juror told The
Star that he or she thought some of the fellow jurors were disgruntled
with the state and factored those frustrations into their decision to
try to acquit Justice.

Reaction

Justice and
Cummings stood before the jury as the clerk of court read the jury’s
verdict. Justice stared straight ahead with his hands crossed in front
of him. He showed little emotion.

The emotion was palpable on the
left side of the courtroom, where Justice’s family sat every day of the
trial. After hearing the verdict, Justice’s family members wiped tears
from their eyes with tissues. One woman shook with grief.

The verdict marked the end of two weeks of testimony and deliberation in the murder trial.

Doctors,
paramedics and pathologists gave heart-wrenching testimony about the
2-year-old’s extensive injuries. They said he had a six-inch skull
fracture than snaked from the right side of his skull into the base of
his spine. His chest and abdomen were bruised purple. One doctor
compared a cut on Jeremiah’s neck to the sharp edge of a belt.

Justice himself said during police interviews that he loved Jeremiah and wouldn’t hurt him.

‘We did our job’

Ann Roberts, jury forewoman, said the trial was very difficult for the 12 jurors.

“We just did the best we could,” Roberts said from the courthouse parking lot after jurors had been dismissed.

"The
fact that everybody’s different and they had different feelings on
things” made coming to a unanimous decision difficult, she said. "We did
our job."

Roberts walked away from the courthouse’s parking
deck. She paused, shaking her head. She said the Justice case was her
first trial as a juror.

Bobby Swafford, Jeremiah’s grandson and Kathy Swafford’s father, isn’t satisfied with the jury’s decision.

“I just don’t think it’s fair myself,” he said when reached by phone Monday evening.

Bobby Swafford wasn’t in the courtroom Monday to hear the verdict, but another family member gave him the news.

“It was shocking as hell,” he said.

Bobby Swafford said he plans to attend his daughter’s trial, which is scheduled to begin in March.

http://www.shelbystar.com/news/trial-61666-verdict-jury.html

What a travesty for Jeremiah. At least they found him guilty of something unlike the Casey Anthony case. But he should have been found guilty of first degree murder. I hope the monster mother is found guilty in March.

SHELBY — Last week, Kathy Lynn Swafford was called to court as a witness to testify during her husband’s trial in Cleveland County.



Both Swafford and her husband, Dwight Stacy Justice, had been charged with first-degree murder and felony child abuse in connection with the 2009 death of Jeremiah Swafford.

On March 12, a Lincoln County jury will decide Swafford’s guilt or innocence.

June Albright, trial court coordinator for Judicial District 27B, said Wednesday that a judge had approved a change of venue request and the court proceedings would be moved to Lincoln County.

Fred Flowers, Swafford’s attorney, had filed the motion in December, citing pre-trial publicity and “great prejudice against the defendant” as the reason for the request.

During Justice’s two-week trial The Star, as well as several member of the media from Charlotte, filled benches in the courtroom.

It took the 12 Cleveland County jurors more than two days of deliberations to reach a unanimous verdict in Justice’s trial.

The jurors did not find Justice guilty of first- or second-degree murder. Instead, the men and women convicted him Monday of the lesser of the charges, felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury.

He faces six to 15 years in prison, pending sentencing from a judge.

Swafford, 23, has been in jail since Jeremiah’s February 2009 death.

Jeremiah died at Carolinas Medical Center as a result of “blunt-force head trauma due to physical assault/abuse,” according to the N.C. Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy report.

Bill Young, assistant district attorney, was the prosecutor in Justice’s trial and will also be the prosecutor in Swafford’s.

Neither Young nor Flowers could be reached Wednesday.

http://www.shelbystar.com/articles/county-61717-swafford-judge.html

CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. —

The man convicted last week of abusing a 2-year-old in Cleveland County has died, officials confirmed Tuesday morning.

Officials in Cleveland County did not say how Dwight Justice died.

Justice died little more than a week after he was convicted of abusing Jeremiah Swafford. The jury could not decide on a sentence, so the judge in the case said that would be determined at a later date.

He was facing up to nine years in prison.

SLIDESHOW: Scenes from Dwight Justice's verdict

Prosecutors were seeking a murder conviction for Justice, but the jury could not reach an agreement after hours of deliberations.

Kathy Swafford, the boy's mother, is also facing murder charges in the death of her son.

Her trial will start later this year.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/man-convicted-abuse-child-death-dies-prison/nHWwh/

SHELBY -- Dwight Justice died in his jail cell of a brain aneurysm, the Cleveland County coroner has told the Shelby Star.
The Medical Examiner's Office in Charlotte conducted an autopsy Wednesday on Justice, 45, who had been found guilty last week of child abuse and was in the Cleveland County jail, awaiting sentencing.

Justice originally had been charged with murder, in the death of his 2-year-old stepson Jeremiah Swofford. Justice was found not guilty of murder but was convicted on the child abuse charge. The child's mother, Kathy Swofford, is awaiting trial on murder charges in the child's death.

Jail guards were alerted to a problem about 5:15 a.m. Tuesday when an inmate told them that Justice, who usually snores, was very quiet. Guards checked Justice and discovered he had no pulse.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/09/2997621/brain-aneurysm-killed-dwight-justice.html#storylink=cpy

Maybe God was dissatisfied with the verdict and didn't want this monster walking free one day so took care of him. I'm glad he won't be able to hurt any more children, but sorry that he didn't get to suffer for a while for his participation in the abuse of this poor child. Good riddance!

My thoughts exactly bj....

One less asshat to house and clothe and tend to.

Perhaps threats (or more) from fellow inmates frightened him so much, increased his blood pressure to aneurysm levels. Whatever....

A tearful Kathy Lynn Swafford on Thursday pleaded guilty in a
Cleveland County court to second-degree murder and felony child abuse in
the 2009 death of her 2-year-old son, Jeremiah Swafford.
Kathy Swafford, 23, was scheduled to go on trial Monday in
Lincolnton on charges of first-degree murder and felony child abuse. If
convicted, she could have been sentenced to life without parole.

On Thursday, she was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years but will get credit for the three years she’s already served.

Swafford told Judge Robert Ervin she was not guilty and her
lawyer, Fred Flowers, said Swafford had decided that accepting the plea
agreement “was in her best interest under the circumstances.”

But Donna Willis, who had talked with Swafford, was upset with her niece’s decision.

“She didn’t want any more time and wanted to get it over with,”
Willis said. “I think she should have gone ahead with the trial. She
swore to me she didn’t do it. That’s all she’s ever said to all of us.
Now, people will think she done it. That’s what bothers me.”

Willis still believes in Swafford’s innocence.

“I do not believe her hands killed Jeremiah,” Willis said. “No, I do not.”

Swafford’s husband, Dwight Stacy Justice, also was charged with
first-degree-murder and felony child abuse. In February, a Cleveland
County jury found him guilty on the child abuse charge, but before
sentencing he died in jail. Authorities said the cause was a brain
aneurysm.

The death of Jeremiah Swafford on Feb. 14, 2009, sparked anger
across the region, with many criticizing both the family and
authorities. The boy’s relatives said the Department of Social Services
had ample opportunity to remove the boy from a dangerous situation.

During Justice’s trial, a medical examiner testified the toddler
died from blunt force trauma resulting in brain swelling. The boy had a
6-inch-fracture on his head.

Jeremiah lived with his mother and stepfather in a Shelby
apartment. They were the only adults present when the child suffered the
fatal injuries and suggested he may have been hurt after falling out of
bed or a car seat.

Experts testified the injuries were inconsistent with those
explanations. Justice denied he had anything to do with the boy’s death
and said he didn’t see Swafford do anything.

The defense in the Justice trial called Swafford as a witness, but she declined to testify, citing her First Amendment rights.

Jeannette Boner, a former jail inmate, testified for the defense
that Swafford had admitted behind bars she caused the fatal injuries to
her son by picking him up by his feet and slamming his head into a
wooden part of a couch.

“She asked me, ‘What do you think they’ll do with me?’” Bonner
testified. “When I told her she’d probably spend the rest of her life in
prison, she said if she was going to spend the rest of her life in
prison so was he (Justice.)”

Three minutes later, Bonner said Swafford came up with another story – this time that her husband had killed the toddler.

On Thursday, Swafford showed no emotion in court until the judge asked one last time if she had anything to say.

“I want to tell my family I love them,” she said, crying.

Flowers told the court that Swafford, who has an eighth-grade
education, recognizes there are opportunities in prison “and she plans
to take advantage of them.”

Swafford’s father, Bobby Swafford, said her decision to plead
guilty “was probably in her best interest. They were gonna put it on
somebody.”

He maintained that his daughter was innocent, saying “God took care” of the guilty party.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/03/09/3081841/mother-pleads-guilty-in-death.html


Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/03/09/3081841/mother-pleads-guilty-in-death.html#storylink=cpy

she is guilty of this child's murder because she either did it or stood by while her child was abused-she deserves to go down-she didnt plead guilty to jaywalking-sheesh

flash0115 wrote:she is guilty of this child's murder because she either did it or stood by while her child was abused-she deserves to go down-she didnt plead guilty to jaywalking-sheesh

I couldn't agree with you more. She deserves life in prison and not just 18 years. She'll probably be out in about 8 years and have more babies to kill.