KAYDEN POWELL - 6 days (2/2014) - / Charged: Aunt; Kristen Rose Smith - Beloit, WI

Baby missing from Wisconsin found in Iowa

Kayden Powell went missing 5 days after he was born

UPDATED 12:54 PM CST Feb 07, 2014

Woman charged hours after baby found outside gas station


Beloit Police Department

(CNN) —A 6-day-old Wisconsin baby who vanished from a home in the middle of the night has been found safe at an Iowa gas station, authorities said Friday.

A woman who disappeared from the home at about the same time is considered a "person of interest," according to investigators.

An officer found Kayden Powell Friday morning. The child was swaddled in blankets inside a tote bag at a West Branch, Iowa, gas station, according to Town of Beloit, Wisconsin, police Chief Steven Kopp.

"Despite frigid temperatures, Kayden was found alive, and appears to be dong very well," Kopp said. "In the words of EMS officials, he is in excellent health."

The baby was found outside the building, according to G.B. Jones, acting special agent in charge of the Milwaukee office of the FBI.

"We're all very, very fortunate that this baby is alive," Jones said.

While no charges have been filed in the case, one figure in the story was jailed in Iowa on different charges: the woman, Kristen Rose Smith, who disappeared from the Town of Beloit home at about the same time as the baby.

Smith was jailed in Iowa Thursday on an unrelated fraud warrant out of Texas after police investigating Kayden's disappearance contacted her on her cell phone and asked her to report to a nearby police station, authorities said.

When police searched her car, they found baby clothes, but no sign of the infant, Kopp said Thursday.

Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden said state and federal prosecutors will meet soon to decide if charges will be filed in the boy's disappearance.

Kayden's mother is 18-year-old Brianna Marshall.

Smith reportedly said at the home that she was Marshall's half-sister and that she, Marshall and the baby's father would be moving to Colorado, according to CNN affiliate WKOW.

Authorities searched feverishly along the travel route back to Colorado after discovering the baby was missing, Jones said.

"We did have troopers, deputy sheriffs and police officers out all night checking every conceivable place along that route," Jones said.

http://www.kcci.com/news/national/Baby-missing-from-Wisconsin-found-in-Iowa/-/9357144/24348912/-/u23b43/-/index.html#ixzz2sgCBtDJa

Baby Kayden's Kidnapping Suspect Due in Court

Story Created: Feb 14, 2014 at 6:08 AM CST
Story Updated: Feb 14, 2014 at 6:13 AM CST

TIPTON, Iowa (AP) - The woman charged with kidnapping a Wisconsin newborn and leaving him behind an Iowa gas station is due in court Friday.

An extradition hearing's scheduled for Kristen Smith on a Texas warrant charging her with tampering with government records.

Federal prosecutors have charged Smith with kidnapping Kayden Powell but have yet to take her into federal custody. She's been jailed on the Texas warrant and an Iowa child endangerment charge.

Investigators say Smith took her half sister's baby from a southern Wisconsin home Feb. 6. After the baby's mother reported him missing, police contacted Smith as she was driving through Iowa and ordered her to stop for questioning.

She denied knowledge of Kayden's whereabouts, but was arrested on the Texas warrant. Police found the child alive about 29 hours later.

Read more: http://www.kcrg.com/home/top-9/Baby-Kaydens-Kidnapping-Suspect-Due-in-Court-245512851.html#ixzz2tKMFsLGW

Kristen Smith -Cedar County Sheriff's Office
(Photo: People.com)

Woman accused of kidnapping Beloit newborn appears in court
Kristen Smith's trial scheduled for July 28

Published On: May 15 2014 01:40:28 PM CDT  
Updated On: May 15 2014 06:19:25 PM CDT

JANESVILLE, Wis. -  A woman accused of kidnapping a Beloit infant was in federal court in Madison Thursday morning trying to suppress evidence in the case against her.

Authorities said Kristen Smith, 31, of Colorado, took her half-sister's 5-day-old son from a Beloit home on Feb 6. Kayden Powell was found alive in a bin outside an Iowa gas station 29 hours later in freezing temperatures.

Smith was arrested and later was charged with federal kidnapping.

Smith was in court Thursday to get evidence against her suppressed from the case. The defense argued she was coerced into signing a document and wasn't given an attorney the first time she requested one.

Smith testified in court saying she was denied an attorney at the first mention.

"Under case law, if you request an attorney, unless the defendant does something to re-initiate contact with the law enforcement, they are supposed to honor that request and get you an attorney,"  said Matt Noel, Smith's attorney.

Video clips of Smith being questioned showed agents struggling with Smith's phone when she first mentioned an attorney. The statement she made was interpreted differently by the defense and an FBI agent. The agent said Smith was demonstrating her cooperation, but the defense claimed it was a request for an attorney.

Smith later failed a polygraph exam and asked for an attorney hours later when she was asked to consent to a search of her email. The questioning ended.

"The defense did argue that Ms. Smith was coerced into making any statements or confessions and evidence we put on, we believe there was no coercion involved," said Julie Pfluger, U.S. assistant attorney.

The defense also said Smith wasn't read her rights before the FBI interview and prosecutors agreed that about two hours of the interview shouldn't be used in court.

The trial for Smith has been scheduled for July 28.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/woman-accused-of-kidnapping-beloit-newborn-appears-in-court/25996764

Trial begins in federal court for Kristen Smith, accused of kidnapping her newborn nephew

POSTED 3:18 PM, JULY 28, 2014
UPDATED AT 08:45PM, JULY 28, 2014
BY AP WIRE SERVICE

MADISON (AP) — The trial has begun for a Colorado woman accused of kidnapping her newborn nephew in Wisconsin and abandoning him in freezing temperatures.

Kristen Smith, of Aurora, Colorado, faces one count of kidnapping in federal court. She could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted by a jury in Madison, Wisconsin.

Prosecutors argue that Smith kidnapped days-old Kayden Powell from the Town of Beloit home where his parents were staying in February. Police arrested her at a gas station in West Branch, Iowa, later that day, but the infant wasn’t with her.

The West Branch Police chief discovered Kayden the next morning hidden in a crate behind another gas station about 500 yards from the one where Smith was arrested. The infant was unharmed.

http://fox6now.com/2014/07/28/trial-begins-in-federal-court-for-kristen-smith-accused-of-kidnapping-her-newborn-nephew/

Smith testifies took baby with permission, admits abandoning child

Posted: Jul 30, 2014 12:40 PM CDT
Updated: Jul 30, 2014 12:50 PM CDT
By Tony Galli - bio | email

MADISON (WKOW) -- The Colorado woman charged with kidnapping a newborn in Beloit and then abandoning the infant near an Iowa gas station testified in her own defense Wednesday, stating the baby's father gave her permission to take the baby, just days ahead of a planned move by the father and the child's teen mother to Colorado.

Kristen Smith, half-sister of the 18-year old mother of baby Kayden Powell, testified in the early morning hours of Feb. 6, a groggy Bruce Powell handed her the baby and told her to take him. Smith testified she initially understood Powell's words to mean to simply hold the baby, but said Powell clarified she was to take Kayden Powell to Colorado on Smith's planned trip there.

Smith also testified she received a brief phone call from the boy's mother, Brianna Marshall, asking Smith where Marshall's baby was, as Smith traveled the first part of what was expected to be a thirteen hour ride to Colorado. Smith said the call was brief, and she then received a call from a Beloit police officer, after she unsuccessfully tried to call Marshall back.

"I'm freaking out," Smith testified about receiving the officer's call, saying she wondered why Powell had not clarified she was with the child, and worried she would be the subject of an Amber Alert and her possessions searched.

Smith testified she placed the child with blankets around him in a plastic tote near the front corner of an Iowa gas station, and went to another, nearby gas station to await contact from a police officer.

Smith said she was arrested by an officer on an arrest warrant from Texas, after allowing officers to search her SUV.

Smith's attorney, Matthew Noll, asked her if she remembered whether investigators asked about the child's location. "I don't remember if they did," Smith replied. "I don't remember anything on that day," she testified, as she referenced experienced the disorienting symptoms of high blood pressure.

Authorities say the four day old infant was found by an Iowa police chief the day after Smith's arrest in twelve-below-zero weather, and survived. The chief testified Tuesday the baby was in a plastic tote that was near the rear of the gas station, and among other, plastic bins, crates and totes for recycling.

Before Smith's testimony Wednesday, Noll unsuccessfully asked Judge James Peterson for a judgment of acquittal, arguing Smith had received permission to take the baby, and had nothing to gain from her actions. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Sinnot countered Smith had consistently lied about her intentions with her half-sister, the infant and his father, and had faked a pregnancy. Peterson said Noll's claim of Smith's permission to take the child was "inconsistent" with previous testimony from the baby's parents, and denied the motion.

During nearly ninety minutes on the witness stand before a trial break, Smith became emotional when she described losing twins in January, after labor was induced.

Earlier in the trial, prosecutors produced evidence showing Smith had a birth certificate application in Colorado and baby items, and showed jurors a prosthetic belly with a navel that was seized from Smith's SUV.

Both Marshall and Powell testified Smith gave them unspecified pain pills and became drowsy hours before the baby disappeared. Smith testified Powell complained of a headache and she reluctantly him Xanax.

Smith's testimony is scheduled to continue Wednesday afternoon. She faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

http://www.wkow.com/story/26152652/2014/07/30/smith-testifies-took-baby-with-permission-admits-abandoning-child

Jury: Aunt guilty of kidnapping

by Kevin Murphy, Special to the Times
News · August 07, 2014

MADISON, Wis. – A Colorado woman accused of taking her newborn nephew and hiding him for nearly 30 hours at a West Branch gas station in February was found guilty July 31 of kidnapping a minor.


After a four-day trial, federal jurors needed less than three hours to convict Kristen R. Smith, of Aurora, Colo., of kidnapping five-day-old Kayden Powell from her half-sister, Brianna Marshall, on Feb. 6, a day after Kayden was brought home from the hospital.

Smith, 31, faces 25 years to life in prison at her Oct. 27 sentencing.

Smith maintained that before she left Beloit, Wis., for Aurora, she received a last-minute request from Bruce Powell, the infant’s father, to take Kayden with her and Powell and Marshall would later join them to a start a new life.

Powell, who was groggy and stumbled when Smith was preparing to leave at 2 a.m., said he would tell Marshall that Smith was taking the baby with her, Smith testified.

Powell took the witness to describe Smith’s brief visit to Beloit, but was never asked by the prosecutors or Smith’s attorney to confirm or deny Smith’s statement.

Both Marshall and Powell were unhappy living with Marshall’s relatives and had recently accepted Smith’s invitation to join her in Aurora, a Denver suburb, Smith testified.

Smith also testified that a few hours into her trip, she was confused when a panicked Marshall called her to say her baby was missing.

Beloit police contacted Smith by cell phone and asked her to stop immediately and allow her vehicle to be searched. Smith stopped at a BP gas station in West Branch, wrapped the baby in a blanket and put him in a plastic tote box outdoors in sub-freezing temperatures.

Smith then drove to a nearby Kum & Go gas station where she flagged down West Branch Police Officer Alex Koch.

Koch testified that Smith said she knew nothing about a missing baby and let him search her vehicle to confirm it.

A second officer arrived and learned that Smith had an outstanding arrest warrant from Texas and took Smith into custody.

Smith continued to deny her involvement in Kayden’s disappearance during a lengthy interrogation by FBI agents. Meanwhile, West Branch police and other law enforcement agencies kept searching for the baby. Police Chief Mike Horihan found him the following morning in the tote with the lid snapped shut behind the BP station.

West Branch paramedic Sandy Heick also testified that she removed Kayden from the tote and found his condition to be good despite being outdoors for an extended period.

Smith panicked and hid the baby and then continued to panic when she lied to authorities about not knowing Kayden’s whereabouts, her attorney Matthew Noel told jurors Thursday in closing arguments.

“It was not the best way to handle this situation,” said Noel, “but there was no ill intent on my client’s behalf … She wanted to return to Beloit with the baby.”

Noel also said Smith would not benefit from taking the baby as “she already had four children of her own and a step-child.”

Federal prosecutors told jurors that Smith was a chronic liar and manipulator and only rekindled a relationship with Marshall after learning in June 2013 that Marshall was pregnant.

Smith concocted a fake pregnancy scheme that included posting on her Facebook page sonograms she downloaded from the internet, bought a prosthetic pregnancy “belly” and filled out an application for a birth certificate listing “Kaysin Michael Smith” as the name of the child, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Sinnott.

“She lied about the baby…She lied to suit her purposes. She to lied to Brianna and Bruce that they would be welcomed out in Colorado … and instead she crept into their bedroom while they were asleep to take their baby,” Sinnott said.

http://www.westbranchtimes.com/article.php?id=10761