No Justice: A jury has acquitted a 31-year-old man accused of punching a 2-year-old girl to death

[Sugar Cookie]

A jury has acquitted a 31-year-old man accused of punching to death a 2-year-old girl in Iowa County.

Court records say Cody Stevens was found not guilty Monday of first-degree murder.

A criminal complaint said Stevenson struck the daughter of his live-in girlfriend three or four times in the abdomen on June 30, 2017.

Authorities say the girl died three days later.

He testified Friday that he'd told authorities that he punched the girl but said so only to protect her mother. He says the mother, Amanda Loffer, punched her daughter. Court records don't show the woman has been charged.

Man acquitted of punching 2-year-old girl to death

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A jury has acquitted a 31-year-old man accused of punching to death a 2-year-old girl in Iowa County.

wcfcourier.com

Stevenson confessed to police that he hit the child, but his attorneys asked a judge in previous hearings not to allow his confession as evidence during the trial because Stevenson didn’t understand his rights when making those statements.

An Iowa City psychologist testified during one hearing that Stevenson had a mental age of a 14-year-old and an IQ of 78, which is considered “borderline.” A person with an IQ of 70 or below is considered to have a mental disability, psychologist Frank Gersh said.

Gersh said Stevenson didn’t remember police reading him his Miranda rights and said his thought process was impaired because he hadn’t slept or taken his diabetes medication that day.

Trial begins for Williamsburg man accused of hitting toddler

CEDAR RAPIDS – Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of a Williamsburg man accused of hitting a 2-year-old child …

www.thegazette.com

 

[cubby]

Unbelievable.

 

[Siobhan]

JFC, the prosecution team dropped the ball on this and should have given the jury the option of voluntary manslaughter too, because now double jeopardy applies, and they'll never be able to get any justice for that beautiful little girl.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Sadly this little baby will never get justice and the truth of what happened to her will never be known.

 

[AngryLittleMexican]

Holy shit. He may be the mental age of 14 but he has the body of a 44 year old trucker who lived a rough life.

 

[notchback]

Holy shit. He may be the mental age of 14 but he has the body of a 44 year old trucker who lived a rough life.

That's some awesome imagery.

They ought to withhold his diabetes medicine until he's dead.