KAYLEE KIPP - 18 months - / Charged: Mother and boyfriend Deanna Renne Kipp and Stephen Clark West - Gainesville GA

Posted: Wednesday, June 15th 2011 at 4:50pm Deanna Renee Kipp, 24, and her boyfriend Stephen Clark West,

Funeral set for girl allegedly killed by Gainesville couple

GAINESVILLE - Funeral services have been set for the 18-month-old girl
who is at the center of a Gainesville murder investigation.

Services for Kaylee Kemp will be held Friday at 11 a.m. in the Chapel of
Mason & Ward Funeral Home. Interment will follow in the Hillside
Memorial Gardens.

An autopsy Monday showed that Kaylee died from blunt force trauma.

Gainesville Police say Kaylee's mother, 24-year-old Deanna Kipp, and her
mother's boyfriend, 22-year-old Stephen Clark West, have been charged
in the little girl's death. In addition to murder, Kipp and West are
both charged with aggravated assault under the Family Violence Act.

Gainesville Police Officer Kevin Holbrook said officers responded to On
Riverside Condominiums on Riverside Drive around 12:30 p.m. Sunday to a
report of an unresponsive child.

He said the girl was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical where she was pronounced dead.

http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=239548

Bond denied for couple in child murder case

Kipp, West remain in Hall County Jail

June 14, 2011 10:40 p.m.





A Gainesville mother and her boyfriend were denied bond Tuesday in the murder case of Kaylee Kipp, the woman's 18-month-old child.

Deanna Renee Kipp, 24, and her boyfriend Stephen Clark West, 22, were charged Monday with murder and aggravated assault after an incident Sunday afternoon. They appeared before a magistrate judge via camera Tuesday afternoon.

The couple is accused of assaulting the child with an object, causing blunt force trauma to the head, according to court documents.

The arrests were made after Gainesville Police responded at about 12:37 p.m. Sunday to a report of an unresponsive child at On Riverside Condominiums.

Neighbor David Thomas told The Times he didn't know Kipp or West but saw the commotion near his home. He described a group of people standing around the front door of the residence. According to Thomas, they were asking if anyone knew how to perform CPR.

Thomas said a firefighter then arrived and rushed Kaylee Kipp to the hospital.

"(She) was in his arms," he said. "Her arms just floppin.'"

Thomas also said police took a woman away from the scene who appeared to be the child's mother.

"When she came outside, she wasn't crying or anything," he said. "I told my daughter, ‘if that was the mother that was outside, I guarantee you something has happened to that baby besides sick.' But I've never seen the people before."

Kaylee Kipp was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

"It's a tragic thing for something to happen like that this close to home," Thomas said.

Both Deanna Kipp and West will remain at the Hall County Jail until they are scheduled to appear before a judge again on July 8.



Stephen Clark West



Deanna Kipp

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/archives/51831/

West gets life sentence in child's death



Local man found guilty in slaying of 18-month-old; child's mother also charged


August 7, 2012 10:06 p.m.

Barring a successful appeal,
Stephen West will spend the rest of his life in prison for the death of
an 18-month-old girl under his care last year.

A Hall County jury found West guilty Tuesday in the June 2011 death of Kaylee Kipp.

Autopsy reports showed the Gainesville girl died as a result of several blows to the head.

It took the jury less than three hours to determine West was
responsible, declaring the 23-year-old guilty of one count of malice
murder, four counts of felony murder, three counts of cruelty to a child
in the first degree and one count each of aggravated assault and
cruelty to a child in the second degree.

Some of the cruelty charges stem from testimony and evidence that two
other children in the home, also daughters of Deanna Renee Kipp, West’s
live-in girlfriend, were also the target of his abuse.

Superior Court Judge Andrew Fuller gave West the maximum sentence for
the charge, sentencing him to life in prison without the possibility of
parole, plus 20 years for the charge of cruelty to children.

Fuller said the sentence, handed down within minutes of the verdict,
was necessary retribution for the “extremely heinous act that (West)
committed against Kaylee.”

West’s attorney has 30 days to appeal.

Kaylee was found unresponsive at an apartment complex on Gainesville’s Riverside Drive last year.

Police determined the child had been dead for quite some time before they were called; her body was cold and stiff to the touch.

Two other children in the home also were found to have bruising and
injuries that were “highly suspicious” of abuse, according to court
testimony from a nurse practitioner who examined the children on the day
of Kaylee’s death.

Kaylee’s mother has also been charged in her death.

The mother’s case will likely go to trial later this year.

Before Fuller decided whether West’s life sentence would include the
possibility of parole, his stepmother, 77-year-old Christine West, spoke
on his behalf, telling the judge West had “been a good son” and that
she loved him “dearly.”

“I’d like to have him home, but whatever happens, I love him as my son,” she said.

Before he was found guilty of murder, West had no prior criminal
record. The clean history usually works in a defendant’s favor during
sentencing, and West’s attorney, Leonard Parks, Jr., asked Fuller to
consider that.

But Hall County’s chief assistant district attorney Lindsay Burton asked the judge to disregard those factors.

“No criminal history doesn’t matter in a case like this,” she said.
“He preyed on a child who could not stand up for herself ... he brutally
beat to death an 18-month-old child and tortured two others.”

Parks also asked the judge to consider West’s age. Even with a
sentence that granted him the possibility of parole, West would be in
his 50s before he ever got a chance to go before a parole board, Parks
said.

The possibility of parole, Parks said, would give West an incentive
to work toward a better life instead of “locking him away like an
animal.”

Despite West’s age, Fuller said the circumstances of the case — the
evidence that West had beaten children, resulting in the death of one —
were too serious to give a lesser sentence.

The weeklong trial had been an emotional one. During prosecutors’
closing arguments, jurors, attorneys and observers had tears in their
eyes as they were confronted with a photograph of the smiling
18-month-old.

Fuller said he hoped that West would consider the fact he was still
alive, and said that fact alone should give West an incentive to change
his life.

“You took that opportunity from Kaylee,” Fuller said.

Kaylee’s biological father thanked the jury for its work, saying he could finally begin to put his daughter’s death behind him.

“I loved my daughter very much,” he said. “I never got to tell her goodbye.”

West showed little emotion as a court officer read the verdict and
did not turn back to look at his stepmother as he exited the courtroom
in handcuffs.

Both West and Deanna Kipp have remained in jail since their arrests last year. West’s sentence will account for time served.

Court documents allege Deanna Kipp also “willfully deprive(d) the
child of necessary sustenance to the extent that the health and
well-being of Kaylee Kipp was jeopardized by failing to seek medical
care for the child after injury.”

In addition to the charges she and West share, Deanna Kipp has also
been charged with an additional count each of felony murder and cruelty
to a child.
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/archives/71039/

Jury Selected In Kipp Murder Trial

Posted on 23 October 2012 by John DAquino

GAINESVILLE- A jury was selected Tuesday for the trial of Deanna Renee Kipp who is charged last year with five counts of cruelty to a child in the first degree, one count of cruelty to a child in the second degree, one count of aggravated assault, four counts of felony murder and one count of malice murder for killing her 18-month-old baby daughter, Kaylee Kipp.

Deanna Renee Kipp was also indicted last month for providing false statements to authorities in two separate interrogations concealing a death.

Kipp’s boyfriend, Stephen Clark West, was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years without the possibility of parole last August on similar charges for the murder of Kaylee Kipp.

http://southhallgazette.com/jury-selected-in-kipp-murder-trial/

Gainesville mother found guilty in murder of toddler

November 3rd 2012 at 6:37am

GAINESVILLE - A Gainesville mother has been convicted in the death of
her toddler daughter. Hall County District Attorney Lee Darragh
confirmed the guilty verdict handed down Friday by a Hall County
Superior Court jury.

The jury deliberated just two hours before declaring Deana Kipp, 24,
guilty on all counts involving the murder of her 18-month-old daughter
in June 2011. Darragh said one count, malice murder, was reduced to
voluntary manslaughter, but Kipp was found guilty of felony murder,
among other crimes in relation to the death.

Authorities said Kaylee Kipp died after receiving several blows to her head.

Deanna Kipp's boyfriend Stephen Clark West is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of the child.

There has been no sentencing date set for Deanna Kipp.

http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=254802

At least the little angel got justice. They both should have gotten the death penality. Even as a step father I would have loved that little angel with all my heart and soul. Too many children are being murdered. We need stiffer laws. William

Thanks William for sharing Kaylee's photo. She was adorable. I too am glad she received some justice. I hope her POS mother receives a long sentence too.

This whole thing is so maddening. The worst part? I babysit Kalee's big sisters. They have so much baggage because if the thing that have happened. Being hit, raped, and beat up? The younger one is 5 and the older one is now 9. They have a happy family and have a baby on the way, but the older sister told me one night.
"I want my mommy. But I want the nice version of her. Before she ran off with Stephen." It just broke my heart. So that night, we wrote a letter to Kaylee and put it on the front porch. The next morning it was gone and Steph believes that god took it to Kaylee. And so to I.

Adellia wrote:This whole thing is so maddening. The worst part? I babysit Kalee's big sisters. They have so much baggage because if the thing that have happened. Being hit, raped, and beat up? The younger one is 5 and the older one is now 9. They have a happy family and have a baby on the way, but the older sister told me one night.
"I want my mommy. But I want the nice version of her. Before she ran off with Stephen." It just broke my heart. So that night, we wrote a letter to Kaylee and put it on the front porch. The next morning it was gone and Steph believes that god took it to Kaylee. And so to I.

Those poor girls will need a lot of love and kindness as well as therapy to overcome this horror.    

It appears you are saying the monster raped these little girls.  I'm still stunned that a woman would allow her children to be treated this way, even allowing him to beat one to death.  This is heartbreaking.