CHEYENNE EMERY YARLEY - 10 Months (2009) - Wake County NC

The North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has released
the results of its autopsy of a 10-month-old girl who died in Wake
County in November.
The report says Cheyenne Emery Yarley died from abusive head trauma. The infant was also sexually assaulted.
The
girl's stepfather - 26-year-old Joshua Stepp - is charged with
first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault in her death. He
called 911 from an apartment off Jones Franklin Road November 15 and
told the operator the girl had swallowed toilet paper and wasn't
breathing. "I'm trying to, like, resuscitate her, and, uh, her heart is beating but she's not breathing," he said. Paramedics tried to help the infant, but she was pronounced dead at WakeMed. Stepp has been in jail without bond since his arrest.

Prosecutors Pursue Death Penalty Against Joshua Stepp in 2009 NC Slaying of Infant Stepdaughter
Prosecutors seek death penalty after infant fatally abused

Wake County prosecutors announced today that they plan to seek the death penalty against a man accused of sexually assaulting and killing his 10-month-old stepdaughter.

Joshua Andrew Stepp, of 1223 Silver Sage Drive, Apt. 303, faces first-degree murder and first-degree sex offense charges in the Nov. 8 death of Cheyenne Emery Yarley.

Stepp told a dispatcher in a 911 call that the child choked on toilet paper, but, according to a medical examiner's report, she died from "abusive head trauma."

The report also said injuries were found in the child's ear, vagina and anus.

In a status hearing this morning, prosecutors told Judge Ronald Stephens that investigators believed the infant had been on the floor with her head pushed into the carpet.

http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/showthread.php?413-Prosecutors-Pursue-Death-Penalty-Against-Joshua-Stepp-in-2009-NC-Slaying-of-Infant-Stepdaughter

Posted: August 4, 2010
DA: Bias claims in death cases could clog courts


RALEIGH, N.C. — The state office that defends people facing death-penalty cases has urged defense attorneys to raise a claim of racial bias in all potential capital cases, which prosecutors say will slow the justice system.

North Carolina's Racial Justice Act allows defendants to argue that racial bias played a role in their sentences. Kentucky is the only other state that permits the use of statistical evidence to try to prove jurors were biased.

Lawyers for five death row prisoners filed motions Tuesday seeking to have their death sentences converted to life in prison without parole. The state Attorney General's Office has advised North Carolina’s district attorneys to expect that all 159 inmates on death row will file motions based on the Racial Justice Act.

Of 159 convicts on death row in North Carolina, 87 are black.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Boston’s Northeastern University concluded that a convicted killer is three times more likely to get a death sentence in North Carolina if the victim is white rather than black.

The Office of the Capital Defender wants defense attorneys to file Racial Justice motions in pending cases, regardless of the race of the defendant.

Two Wake County cases where such motions have been filed involve Joshua Stepp, a white man charged with sexually abusing and murdering his white 10-month-old stepdaughter, and Armond Devega, a black man charged in a robbery spree that left two blacks dead.

"We're sort of surprised by some of the ones where there didn't appear to by anything racial about the case," Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said.

Willoughby contends that sorting through statistics, jury make-up and decisions in scores of old cases will be a drag on the court system.

"It just makes it more cumbersome and expensive," he said. "This is part of a plan to do away with the death penalty."

Tye Hunter, executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, a Durham-based nonprofit that assists defendants in capital cases, said there's no effort to clog the courts with appeals to effectively end the death penalty in North Carolina.

"This is an opportunity for us to take a serious look at race and criminal justice," Hunter said.

He does agree with prosecutors, however, in suggesting that pre-trial Racial Justice motions be set aside to avoid bogging down potential death penalty cases.

"Lawyers have been filing these motions as place holders, not knowing whether they have a meritorious claim or not," he said. "If they get the death penalty, then they can raise it in post-conviction."

Gov. Beverly Perdue, who signed the act into law a year ago, said it's important to let the racial review process work.

"I would urge folks to work with the courts and with the process," Perdue said. "We're in the very new beginnings of something that nobody knew how it would work. America is being led by North Carolina."

Hunter also recommended that all of the death row appeals under the Racial Justice Act be consolidated and handled by a special judge.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8086772/

Posted: June 17, 2010
Updated: April 14
Raleigh man to go to trial for infant's death

Raleigh, N.C. — The capital murder case of a Raleigh man accused of beating to death his 10-month-old stepdaughter will go to trial this summer.

Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens set a trial date of July 18 for Joshua Andrew Stepp, who faces first-degree murder and first-degree sex offense charges in the Nov. 8, 2010, death of Cheyenne Emery Yarley.

Stepp told a dispatcher in a 911 call that the child choked on toilet paper, but an autopsy report found she died of "abusive head trauma."

The report also indicates that paramedics and emergency room personnel at WakeMed in Raleigh found injuries to the child.

Web Editor: Kelly Gardner

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/7804531/

In rare move, death penalty sought against Raleigh man





Raleigh, N.C. — A Raleigh man on trial for sexually abusing and killing his 10-month-old stepdaughter is only the third person in Wake County to face a possible death sentence since 2007, when executions were effectively put on hold in North Carolina.
Jury selection began Monday in the capital murder trial of Joshua Andrew Stepp, 28, who is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree sex offence of a child in the Nov. 8, 2009, death of Cheyenne Emery Yarley.
Stepp told a 911 dispatcher that the girl choked on toilet paper, but an autopsy found that she had been beaten to death.
It's expected to take two weeks for a jury to be seated, and attorneys said they expect testimony to last approximately three weeks.
A de facto moratorium on the death penalty has been in place since 2007 because of legal challenges to how executions are carried out in North Carolina, where 158 people are on death row.
As a result, Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby says, prosecutors across the state are now less inclined to seek the death penalty partially because jurors seem less inclined to vote for it and because the cases are more expensive to try.
"We all have a shortage of resources, and we recognized that we have to be very careful in selecting the cases that we try that way," he said.
Of the 36 homicide cases on the court docket in Wake County, Willoughby said, five are currently designated as capital cases.

read more>
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9875021/

Updated: 6:49 p.m. Monday
Defense blames PTSD for infant's beating death


RALEIGH, N.C. — An Iraq war veteran facing a possible death sentence for the death of his 10-month-old stepdaughter was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and was self-medicating with alcohol and prescription painkillers when he beat her to death inside their Raleigh home nearly two years ago, his defense attorney told jurors Monday.

Attorney Thomas Manning said that Cheyenne Emery Yarley's death was a "perfect storm" of substance abuse and PTSD that "blew up" as Joshua Andrew Stepp tried to quiet and comfort the crying child.

"This attack was a singularity in Josh Stepp's existence. That's what the evidence will show," Manning said. "Never before had it happened – had anything happened."

Stepp, 28, is on trial for first-degree murder and first-degree sex offense in Cheyenne's Nov. 8, 2009, death. He called 911, saying she had choked on toilet paper, but an autopsy found she died of abusive head trauma.

Prosecutors said in opening statements that Stepp sexually assaulted, beat, shook and slammed the girl's face into the carpet while her mother was at work, leaving her face like a "grotesque scarlet mask."

"There was a constellation of injuries inflicted upon this child over an hour – not a moment, not a second, but an hour," Wake County Assistant District Attorney Adam Moyers said. "He was supposed to take care of her, and he murdered her."

There was no indication that she choked on toilet paper, and Stepp's story that she had also fallen off a couch and suffered a rug burn didn't make sense to first responders.

"The suffering was such that this baby girl, who barely had teeth, bit her own tongue, lacerating it," Moyers said. "The physical damage to her brain was more than her life could sustain."

There was also evidence of sexual assault, Moyers said, and blood on Stepp's underwear matched Cheyenne's.

The defense disputed the sex assault charge, saying there were no internal injuries and no blood or DNA on Stepp's body. The injuries that the state contends are signs of sexual abuse, Manning said, happened while his client was changing a dirty diaper.

"There's no dispute that (Stepp) injured this child and that his infliction of injuries killed this child. The 'why of it' is very much the issue," Manning said.

Stepp had been an infantryman and weapons expert with the U.S. Army and was training soldiers in the Iraqi military when members of his unit were killed by an improvised explosive device, Manning said, and Stepp had to help collect the body parts of his fellow soldiers.

"He never complained … but along the way, as a result of things that happened earlier in his life and while in the Army, he developed the symptoms of PTSD," Manning said.

Instead of seeking treatment at a VA hospital, he turned to alcohol and painkillers.

"He was trying to get back into the Army, and he was managing whatever was wrong with him – and doing quite well," Manning said.

Stepp had been drinking heavily and taken four painkillers on Nov. 8, 2009, when his wife went to work, leaving him to care for the child.

"There's no excusing what happened, certainly, and there is no pity being asked here," Manning said. "But understanding what happened and why – and getting it right and finding the correct crime, which Josh Stepp has committed, is very much at issue."

"When all the evidence is in from the state," he continued, "we're going to be asking you to convict him of the offense, which the evidence and all of the evidence supports, not what the state contends."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10029945/

Posted: 6:57 p.m. yesterday
Updated: 6:22 a.m. today
Mom heard 'different scream' the night infant daughter died

RALEIGH, N.C. — The mother of an infant who Raleigh police say was sexually abused and killed at the hands of her stepfather said Tuesday that she had second thoughts about going to work at Fort Bragg on the night her daughter died Nov. 8, 2009.

"I actually had thought about driving back home, but I didn't," Brittany Yarley testified Tuesday in her ex-husband's first-degree murder trial. "He had advised me that she had fallen off the couch and that she had a rug burn and that it wasn't that serious."

It was a "very different scream," Yarley recalled, almost as if 10-month-old Cheyenne Yarley were "extremely hurt," but Joshua Stepp had been able to handle situations like that before, she said.

It was the last time, she said, she heard her daughter's voice.

Within the hour, Stepp called 911, reporting that his stepdaughter had choked on some toilet paper inside their Raleigh home.

Doctors at WakeMed in Raleigh worked for more than 15 minutes to try to revive her but were unsuccessful. By then, Yarley said, she had talked to Stepp a second time.

"The defendant got on the phone and said it was really bad," she said. "At that time, a nurse on site had picked up the phone and had advised me that I needed to come to WakeMed."

When she arrived at the hospital, Yarley said, Dr. Sammy Saad told her they noticed injuries to child's body that could have been from sexual trauma and head injuries that weren't consistent with a fall from a couch.

"Her mom's first response was Josh would not do that," Saad, a pediatric emergency physician, testified, "and we ended the discussion at that time. She didn't have any further questions."

Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty against Stepp, 28, say he sexually assaulted, beat, shook and slammed Cheyenne's face into the carpet for nearly an hour, leaving her with a scarlet mask of burns and injuries.

Defense attorneys don't deny that he killed the girl but say Stepp, an Iraq war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, can't explain why he did what he did. He had been drinking at the time and had taken a heavy dose of painkillers.

Stepp, they say, will tell his story to the jurors when he testifies on his own behalf.

They do dispute the sexual assault claim. They say Cheyenne was injured when a frustrated Stepp had to repeatedly change her dirty diaper. Defense attorneys say investigators found none of the girl's DNA on Stepp, even though her blood was found in his underwear.

Saad, though, said that, based on his experience, that the bruising and tearing in her anal and genital regions were consistent with sexual trauma and that they could not have been caused with a finger or knuckle, as the defense claims.

When he confronted Stepp, he said, Stepp said nothing.

"I told him that Cheyenne died and that she had some injuries that are not consistent with falling off the couch. I explained there was some evidence of physical and sexual abuse," Saad said. "His face was down, as far as I remember, and he walked away."

Testimony is expected to resume Thursday.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10036588/

Wake man charged with assaulting infant stepdaughter testifies

MODIFIED TUE, AUG 30, 2011 03:04 PM

ALEIGH -- Joshua Stepp had few words today for why he repeatedly rubbed his 10-month-old stepdaughter's face into the carpet the night the infant died.

In a murder trial that carries the possibility of the death penalty, Stepp took the stand today in his defense.

The 28-year-old Army veteran is accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Cheyenne Yarley while in his care on Nov. 8. 2009

Though Stepp has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder or sexual assault, his attorneys acknowledge that he is responsible for Cheyenne's death.

Stepp was arrested after calling emergency dispatchers on that November Sunday in 2009 to report that Cheyenne had stopped breathing. He told dispatchers the infant had choked on toilet paper, then told emergency responders that she had fallen off the couch and suffered rug burns.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys say those were lies.

Prosecutors contend that Cheyenne died during a sexual assault and severe beating that left her tongue nearly lacerated and her head so swollen that prosecutor Adam Moyers said her face resembled a "grotesque scarlet mask."

Prosecutors rested their case today, the sixth day of testimony.

Stepp, who served in Iraq, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder — a factor that his attorneys have said will play largely in his defense.

Stepp had mixed a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol in the hours before Cheyenne's death. He had been out at a sports bar to watch a 49ers game and when his wife, Cheyenne's mother, called him to come home to take over child care duties between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., he was feeling woozy and having difficulty driving.

When he arrived home, Stepp testified today, he could not recall precisely where he encountered his wife or how long he spent with her, but he remembered her as being angry at him because he was late getting home and she was going to be late to work.

Stepp's 4-year-old daughter Mariah was inside the apartment with Cheyenne at the time. The TV was on and Cheyenne was screaming and crying.

"I knew it was because her mom had just walked out the door," Stepp said.

He picked up the child, bounced her up and down, offered her a bottle and checked her diaper. If nothing else worked, Stepp said, he put her in her crib by herself.

Stepp testified that much of that day is a blur to him.

"I can only remember, like, really intense parts," he said.

When the child did not stop crying, Stepp left her on the floor in the master bedroom closet, his attorney said in opening statement. When she continued to scream and cry, he grabbed her behind her right ear, turned her over and pushed her face into the carpeted floor over and over and over again.

When Stepp was asked why, he said:

"The only way I can explain it is, I don't know, it just like happened, and then I'm there and I'm like, 'What the hell.'"

Stepp talked about trying to put space between him and his stepdaughter after the incident.

"I didn't want something to happen again," Stepp testified, his speech halting. "I didn't want to just lose it and end up hurting her again."

But his older daughter called him back in. Cheyenne had a soiled diaper.

"I had to go in and change her," Stepp said. "I didn't want to, but you can't just leave a kid in a dirty diaper like that."

Stepp testified that when he put Cheyenne down to change her diaper, she was wriggling and kicking, trying to get away from him as he used wipes to clean her.

"I was holding her legs up," Stepp said. "She was just screaming and flailing."

Stepp said he did not sexually assault his stepdaughter.

"Oh God no," he said to one of his lawyer's questions about that allegation.

But he described getting toilet paper after changing Cheyenne's diaper, three or four times, and holding it under a bathroom faucet before returning to the bedroom where the child continued to cry.

"I went back in the room and just shoved it in her mouth," Stepp said. "I thought maybe she'd be quiet."

But she started choking, he said.

"I remember trying to pry her mouth open," he said.

He stuffed his fingers in, knuckle deep, trying to retrieve the toilet paper from her mouth. He was able to retrieve a big clump, he said.

As he picked her up and held her, he noticed how shallowly she was breathing. He put her down, he said, but she did not recover. Her little body seized, he said.

Stepp took the infant from room to room in the apartment as he and his 4-year-old hunted for his phone.

Then he dialed emergency dispatchers.



Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/30/1448261/wake-man-charged-with-assaulting.html#ixzz1WYMuida5

Updated: 1:22 p.m. today
Stepdad has nightmares about infant's beating death

RALEIGH, N.C. — A Raleigh man on trial for the beating death of his 10-month-old stepdaughter nearly two years ago took the witness stand for a second day Wednesday, telling jurors that he has recurring nightmares about the night she died.

"It's always on my mind. It's always right there, and it's not going away," 28-year-old Joshua Stepp testified in his first-degree murder trial. "I'd give my life to have her back. She (was) looking at me to be dad, the one whose supposed to watch over her and make sure she's OK. I let her down."

Stepp has admitted to beating, shaking and slamming Cheyenne Yarley's face into the carpet when she wouldn't stop crying on the night of Nov. 8, 2009, but says he doesn't know why he did it.

He testified Tuesday that he was drunk and high on prescription painkillers at the time and can remember only "the most intense" parts of that night.

Defense attorneys working to keep him from facing a possible death penalty say Stepp, an Iraq war veteran, used painkillers and alcohol as a way to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, which resulted from seeing members of his Army unit killed by a roadside bomb.

"I drank all the time," Stepp said. "When I had a free moment, that's what I wanted to do."

The combination of the alcohol, drugs and PTSD along with Cheyenne's nonstop crying led to the crime, Stepp's attorneys contend.

Prosecutors, in seeking the death penalty, say that Stepp also sexually assaulted the child that night. Injuries to her body were consistent with sexual abuse.

During combative cross-examination Wednesday, Stepp maintained that he never sexually assaulted his stepdaughter and that the injuries happened because he was rough with her as he changed her diaper several times that night.

"I hurt her, and I have to live with that. That's my life sentence right there," he said. "But there's no way I could do anything sexual to any of my kids, to any kids period."

Stepp said that he wishes he would have run from his apartment that night, instead of reacting the way we did.

"I didn't mean to do that," he testified. "I pull out her pictures – I just can't say sorry enough."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10069666/

Defense, state argue in Raleigh stepdad's murder trial

Updated: 7:20 p.m. yesterday


RALEIGH, N.C. — Defense attorneys trying to keep an Iraq war veteran off death row argued Tuesday that his undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder – combined with prescription painkillers and alcohol – incapacitated him to the point that he was mentally incapable of planning and carrying out the alleged sexual assault and beating death of his 10-month-old stepdaughter.

"He's got to pay for what he did, but what we're asking you is to not make him pay for what he didn't do," attorney Terry Alford told jurors during closing arguments of 28-year-old Joshua Andrew Stepp's first-degree murder trial.

Stepp, Alford said, is guilty of second-degree murder in Cheyenne Yarley's Nov. 8, 2009, death – something Stepp does not deny.

Testifying on his behalf, Stepp admitted that he beat, shook and slammed Cheyenne into the carpet of their Raleigh apartment when she wouldn't stop crying. But he didn't know why he did it, he said.

"He felt something was going on with his brain that day," Alford told jurors, adding that his client was trying to self-medicate in any way he could.

"Josh was on a mission to get drunk, and he can't explain it," Alford said. "That makes a lot more sense than 'I think that when I get home, I'm going to rape my 10-month-old child, and in doing so, I'm going to hurt and injure her so bad.'"

But Stepp did not sexually abuse the girl, Alford said.

Injuries to Cheyenne's body were consistent with sexual assault, state witnesses testified during Stepp's two-week trial, but they could not say for sure what caused them. Although the child's blood was found on Stepp's underwear, Cheyenne's DNA wasn't found on Stepp's body.

The injuries, Alford said, happened as Stepp, unable to control his frustration of the crying infant, changed her diaper several times that night – injuries "consistent with harsh cleaning, using a finger and wipes in an overly aggressive way."

Wake County Assistant District Attorney Boz Zellinger argued, however, that Stepp was angry because he had to leave a local sports bar to take care of Cheyenne while her mother worked. He knew exactly what he was doing and tried to rape her and then cover up the crime, Zellinger said.

"Men and women come back form wars afflicted with PTSD. This defense taints their suffering," Zellinger said. "This defense perverts that disease. Having PTSD does not make you rape and sexually assault a 10-month-old."

Stepp's cognitive abilities were not affected that night, Zellinger said, and his ability to remember insignificant details while forgetting important events was somewhat of a convenience for him.

"He remembers making a decision to wet the toilet paper (that he put in her mouth to try to get her quiet), but he doesn't remember punching Cheyenne in the head, and he doesn't remember how he got her blood inside his underwear," Zellinger said.

It's unreasonable, he added, to think that Cheyenne's blood could have gotten on his underwear any way other than a sexual assault.

"There's no defense to the sex offense. There's no defense to felony murder by that sex offense, and as to everything else, the defense is weak in that the evidence is overwhelming," Zellinger said. "The only thing that can lead you away from that evidence is the defendant's word – and that's a man who lied repeatedly that night while his stepdaughter was dying."

Stepp told his wife that the child fell off the couch and hurt her face, Zellinger reminded jurors, and told a 911 dispatcher, firefighters and police officers that she choked on toilet paper.

"This assault wasn't a one-second thing and then 911 was called," he said. "This assault took place over an hour and a half, a torturous hour and a half, for this 10-month-old child to live through –that she didn't live through."

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating Wednesday.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10092565/

In closing, defense says Stepp couldn't plot killing


PUBLISHED WED, SEP 07, 2011 05:03 AM

RALEIGH -- Defense attorneys for an Iraq war veteran accused of murdering his infant stepdaughter tried to persuade jurors Tuesday that their client was incapable of plotting the child's death the night it occurred.

Joshua Stepp, a former Army infantryman who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was under the influence of painkillers and alcohol on Nov. 8, 2009, the night Cheyenne Yarley died, his attorneys said.

"He wasn't able to premeditate," said Terry Alford, one of his lawyers.

Alford and Tommy Manning went first in closing arguments Tuesday, urging jurors to find Stepp guilty of second-degree murder, not first-degree murder and sexual assault, as prosecutors charged.

"There was no rape in this case. There was no sexual offense in this case," Alford said.

Cheyenne was 10 months old when she died from severe head trauma. Medical examiners said there were bruises and abrasions around the girl's anus and vagina.

Prosecutors argue that the injuries were from a sexual assault. The defense contends that the wounds occurred when Stepp, while angry and inebriated, forcefully wiped his stepdaughter while changing a soiled diaper.

In closing arguments that took most of Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys offered radically different portrayals of Stepp.

Defense attorneys described the 28-year-old from Washington, N.C., as a "good father" who never sought treatment for mental health troubles that plagued him after he returned from Iraq.

Stepp, who married Cheyenne's mother five months before the infant's death, has an older daughter from his first marriage.

That marriage fell apart after he returned from Iraq and found out his first wife had been unfaithful. Stepp won custody of his daughter, and according to his attorneys, dropped out of the Army after that to dedicate more time to being a father.

He did not seek help

In the months before Cheyenne's death, Stepp was trying to get back into the Army. He went to a military police training session out of state in October 2009, keeping to himself the post-traumatic stress.

Stepp, his attorneys say, did not seek help after coming back from Iraq, burying his emotions after seeing troop mates and friends killed by bombs. He kept to himself his feelings about picking up body pieces from one of those victims and putting them in a pizza box.

The night Cheyenne died, the defense team said, Stepp lost it.

Last week, Stepp took the stand and recalled how he rubbed Cheyenne's face into the carpet repeatedly to get her to stop crying. He told of roughing her up as he changed her diaper that night, but he could not remember how he got blood on his underwear or precisely what he told emergency workers and other adults that night.

Boz Zellinger, an assistant district attorney, questioned Stepp's ability to remember some parts of the night in great detail but draw a blank on others.

Prosecutors contend Stepp killed his stepdaughter during a sexual assault.

Zellinger disputed defense claims that Stepp was unable to control his actions the night Cheyenne died.

Stepp told dispatchers the infant had choked on toilet paper, then told emergency responders she had fallen off the couch and suffered rug burns.

'Poor Josh Stepp'

Defense attorneys acknowledge that Stepp was not forthright in those initial accounts, but they dispute that it was an attempt to cover up what prosecutors contend.

"You've heard from Josh, you've heard from people who know Josh," Alford told jurors in closing arguments. "He just doesn't fit that."

Zellinger lashed out at the defense in his closing argument.

"It's hard not to get angry," Zellinger told jurors. "The defense is: 'Poor Josh Stepp.' "

Zellinger contended that Stepp created a version of events that did not fit with the evidence. He argued that Stepp knew what he was doing, that his ability to provide false accounts to different emergency workers showed an ability to plot.

"What shows his competency more than his deception?" Zellinger said.

Deliberations to begin

Zellinger tried to knock back the defense's contentions that post-traumatic stress disorder played a role in Stepp's actions, saying the arguments were demeaning to others in the military afflicted by such problems.

"This defense taints their suffering," Zellinger said.

Jurors are scheduled to begin deliberations today.



Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/07/1466537/in-closing-defense-says-stepp.html#ixzz1XHW0nCHO

Updated: 7:00 p.m. yesterday
Jury begins deliberations in Stepp murder trial

RALEIGH, N.C. — A Wake County jury on Wednesday began deliberating the fate of a Raleigh man accused of sexually assaulting and killing his 10-month-old stepdaughter.

The six men and six women spent more than three and a half hours deciding whether Joshua Andrew Stepp tried to rape and then intentionally beat to death Cheyenne Yarley in their apartment on the evening of Nov. 8, 2009.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Stepp, 28, could face the death penalty.

Shortly after noon Wednesday, jurors sent out a note to Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith asking to see photos of the child's injuries and of the crime scene, where the state says Stepp slammed Cheyenne's face into the carpet while her mother was at work, leaving her with a "grotesque scarlet mask."

Taking the witness stand in his own defense last week, Stepp admitted to injuring the child when she would not stop crying, but he said he didn't know why he did it. He denied sexually assaulting her.

Defense attorney Terry Alford argued in closing arguments Tuesday that the Iraq war veteran is guilty of second-degree murder because he was drunk and high on prescription painkillers – Stepp's self-treatment for his then-undiagnosed case of post-traumatic stress disorder from his 2005 tour of duty.

The combination of drugs and alcohol, attorneys argued, left him mentally incapable of planning and carrying out Cheyenne's attack.

Police ignored that possibility, Alford argued, saying that they had a theory early on in the case and set out to prove it, unintentionally ignoring other evidence.

"You know what happened," Alford told jurors. "You can feel it in your mind what happened: Here is a 10-month-old child dead with those injuries to the bottom. Boom! Conclusion: We've got a vile, vicious mean guy that tried to rape his 10-month-old stepchild. Let's go out and prove it.

"They didn't intentionally do anything wrong, but what they did is they came to a conclusion too early," he added. "They stopped investigating and started prosecuting."

But Wake County Assistant District Attorney Boz Zellinger said Stepp knew exactly what he was doing and that his cognitive abilities were not impaired that night.

"He intended to kill her," Zellinger said. "We know that because, one, she's dead, and two, he has all the capacity in the world that night to formulate and cover up what he did."

Zellinger said Stepp had to leave early from watching a football game at a sports bar to care for his stepdaughter and that he tried to rape her because he was angry.

"Rape is a crime of anger, a crime of force, power, control, and when the defendant walked into that apartment, that's what happened," Zellinger said.

There was no other reason why Cheyenne's blood was found on Stepp's underwear, he said.

Defense attorneys reminded jurors that there was no DNA evidence suggesting a sexual assault and that doctors and the medical examiner couldn't say definitively whether injuries to the child's vaginal and anal areas were caused by a magic stick.

They argued that Stepp injured her while changing Cheyenne's messy diapers by using a finger and wipes in an "overly aggressive way."

"These injuries came about with Josh having to change diapers in a stage where he couldn't be gentle," Alford said. "He couldn't be gentle that night. The head to the floor was harder than he meant it to be. The cleaning was harder than he meant it to be."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10098147/

Updated: 9:29 p.m. yesterday
Stepdad found guilty in infant's beating death


RALEIGH, N.C. — A Wake County jury on Thursday found Joshua Andrew Stepp guilty of first-degree murder and sex offense of a child in the beating death of his 10-month-old stepdaughter almost two years ago.

Stepp, 28, took the witness stand last week in his own defense, admitting that he beat, shook and slammed Cheyenne Yarley's face into the carpet of their Raleigh home on Nov. 8, 2009, when she wouldn't stop crying.

An autopsy found the child died from abusive head trauma.

Defense attorneys working to keep Stepp from facing a possible death penalty argued Tuesday that the Iraq war veteran used painkillers and alcohol as a way to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and that the combination of the three, along with Cheyenne's nonstop crying, led to the crime.

They said his actions amounted to second-degree murder because he was incapacitated at the time.

Prosecutors, however, argued that Stepp knew what he was doing when he also sexually assaulted Cheyenne.

Injuries to her anal and vaginal areas were consistent with sexual abuse, witnesses testified, but Stepp maintained that he never sexually assaulted his stepdaughter. Those injuries, he said, happened because he was rough with her as he changed her diaper several times that night.

"I hurt her, and I have to live with that. That's my life sentence right there," he testified. "But there's no way I could do anything sexual to any of my kids, to any kids period."

The jury deliberated for about seven hours on Wednesday and Thursday before finding him guilty under the state's first-degree felony murder rule – meaning the killing happened during the commission of another crime.

Jurors must now decide whether Stepp should be sentenced to death for the crimes or spend the rest of his life in prison without parole.

A sentencing hearing started late Thursday afternoon during which family members testified that they thought Stepp was a good father to Cheyenne and to his now-6-year-old daughter and that the crimes he was convicted of are out of character for him.

"I was completely and utterly shocked when I heard the charges," Stepp's cousin, John Chilton, said. "He doesn't fit the profile of someone who'd do what he's accused of."

Stepp successfully fought against his first wife for custody of their daughter, friends testified. Being a single father, they said, he left the Army to take care of her.

"This is not like Josh. This is not the Josh I know," Stepp's father, Frank Stepp said tearfully on the witness stand.

Frank Stepp said that his son was a sweet little boy growing up who was always happy and got along with everyone. In school, he was sometimes mischievous but in a funny way.

"This is my son, and I love him. I feel like I'm looking at my kid in the street and something's about to hit him, and I can't get to him," he said. "And now, I want to take him home, and I can't do that.

"He's got a little girl. She's been crying for her dad, 'I want my dad. I want my dad.'"

Military members Stepp served with in the Army told jurors the horrors they saw serving in Iraq. In one case, they spoke of the job of clearing bodies after a bombing.

"Those experiences were very graphic in nature," Stepp's friend, Danny Arellano, said.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10103750/

Updated: 12:28 p.m. today
Stepmom makes impassioned plea for stepson's life

RALEIGH, N.C. — The stepmother of a Raleigh man facing a potential death sentence for the murder two years ago of his infant stepdaughter tearfully pleaded with jurors Friday to spare his life.

After about seven hours of deliberation, the jury of six men and six women found Joshua Andrew Stepp guilty Thursday of first-degree murder and sex offense of a child in the Nov. 8, 2009, beating death of 10-month-old Cheyenne Yarley.

"I accept your verdict in this case, and I know that it wasn't easy," Anne Stepp said. "And you've heard everything that has to be said, including Joshua's testimony, but what you heard about was one moment in his life. This is not the Josh that I know. This is not the Josh that we raised."

Prosecutors said Josh Stepp, 28, attempted to rape and beat the child to death inside their Raleigh home and then lied to the girl's mother, emergency responders and police about what happened.

Stepp, who testified on his own behalf last week, admitted to killing her, although he said he didn't know why he did, but denied the accusations of sexual assault.

Defense attorneys argued that his actions amounted to second-degree murder, because he was self-medicating at the time with prescription painkillers and alcohol to treat an undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from combat in Iraq, where he saw members of his platoon killed by a roadside bomb.

Injuries indicative of a sexual assault, they argued, were the result of overly aggressive diaper changing.

Anne Stepp was the last of nearly a dozen friends and family members whom defense attorneys called in an effort to keep Stepp off death row.

They rested their case Friday morning, and Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith dismissed the jurors until Monday, when attorneys will present closing arguments in the sentencing phase of Stepp's trial.

Anne Stepp offered a different side to her stepson, whom she raised since he was 6 years old, for jurors while on the stand.

"I saw in Josh the spark of life that, as a parent, you want to nourish, nurture and let it grow. He was mischievous and playful, but he was always ready to stand up for somebody else who he felt had been wronged," she said.

Growing up, he had some difficult times as a teenager. She and his father encouraged him to join the military, where, she said, he blossomed.

He became a sergeant in the Army, and in 2005, served a tour of duty in Iraq.

"They all saw and did things that haunted them," Anne Stepp said. "While it wasn't as noticeable with Josh, there were things that he didn't want to talk about. He drank more. And at that time, he was a single father trying to raise his daughter."

At the time of Cheyenne's death, Josh Stepp had primary custody of his 4-year-old daughter.

He chose his daughter over his military career, his stepmother said, and was trying to get back into the Army after he met Cheyenne's mother, Brittany Yarley.

"He married Brittany so he could get back into the Army, and he was delighted with her baby. He enjoyed taking care of Cheyenne," Anne Stepp said. "He wanted to be her father, too."

Josh Stepp testified that he had been drinking heavily on Nov. 8, 2009, and that he was left to watch his daughter and stepdaughter while Brittany Yarley was at work.

The baby wouldn't stop crying, he said, and all he wanted to do was get her to stop. He couldn't account for his actions.

"He's been haunted by what happened," Anne Stepp said. "He can't sleep. He has nightmares, and in his jail cell, he has a photo of Cheyenne. Every day, he looks at that and wishes he could take that back.

"Putting him on death row will not bring back Cheyenne or punish him more than he punishes himself right now," she added. "He wants to enjoy watching his daughter grow, even if it's only going to be through photographs and maybe letters. He wants to be a part of her life, and she wants to be a part of his.

"So, I ask you all to remember that our lives have value too. Joshua's life has value, and he can still positively affect the lives of other people, and I would appreciate if you would give him the chance to do that."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10108351/

RALEIGH -- The jury that convicted an Iraq war
veteran of first-degree murder for killing his infant stepdaughter went
behind closed doors this afternoon to decide whether he will get the
death penalty. The deliberations were not finished Monday and will
continue Tuesday.
Joshua Stepp, 28, was convicted last week of sex
offense with a child and first-degree murder in the death Nov. 8, 2009,
of Cheyenne Yarley, just 10 months old at the time of her death.
The jury must decide whether he will be sentenced to death or get life in prison without possibility of parole.

Prosecutors described Stepp as an evil man who committed an
"especially cruel and heinous crime," elements necessary for a death
sentence.
"He murdered her and nearly tore her to pieces," Adam
Moyers, an assistant district attorney, contend, his voice raised in
closing arguments during the sentencing phase of the capital trial.
Defense
attorneys argued that the one hour of violence on the Sunday evening in
2009 that ended the life of the 10-month-old girl was out of character
for Stepp.
Family and friends described Stepp as a typically
good-natured man and a good father to his older daughter, a 6-year-old
from his first marriage. On that life-altering night, defense attorneys
said, the former Army infantryman turned to alcohol and prescription
painkillers to deal with post-traumatic stress that mental health
workers testified was from seeing troop mates and friends blown to bits
by bombs in Iraq and from being abandoned by his mother in his early
childhood.
"Was Josh Stepp being wicked or was he being sick?"
Defense attorney Tommy Manning asked jurors to consider in their
deliberations.
Defense attorney Terry Alford reminded jurors that
because of their verdict last week Stepp will be incarcerated for the
remainder of his life.
"The choice for you is whether he'll die a
natural death in prison or whether the government will put him to
death," Alford said.
"Does there have to be another death in this tragedy," Alford said.
Cheyenne
weighed just 17 pounds and was 2-feet-tall when she died from severe
head trauma caused by Stepp, who stood 5 feet 8 inches and weighed 200
pounds at the time, prosecutor Boz Zellinger said during his closing
arguments last week. Medical examiners said there were bruises and
abrasions around the girl's anus and vagina.
Prosecutors argued
that the injuries were from a sexual assault. The defense contended the
wounds occurred when Stepp, while angry and inebriated, forcefully wiped
his stepdaughter while changing a soiled diaper.
On Thursday,
after nearly two and a half weeks of testimony, the jury found Stepp
guilty of a committing a sexual offense with a child. The first-degree
murder conviction came because he was convicted of committing a felony
while committing murder, not because the jury found him guilty of
plotting the death.
Last week, Stepp's father and stepmother appealed to the jury to spare their family one more death.
Josh Stepp, his stepmother said, keeps a photo of Cheyenne with him and every moment of his life regrets what he did to her.
"In
his mind he will suffer the rest of his life for that one moment," Anne
Stepp told jurors last week. "Putting him on death row will not bring
back Cheyenne."
The last person sentenced to death in Wake County was Bryan Lamar Waring, who has been on death row since July 2, 2007.
North Carolina has not executed an inmate since August 2006.
For
roughly four years, a push to stop doctors from assisting in executions
and a lawsuit filed by some death row inmates challenging the use of
lethal injections as cruel and unusual punishment have led to a de facto
moratorium on executions.
Before jurors went behind closed doors,
Stepp's attorneys reminded them that each one of them had to be
comfortable in their decision.
"Any one of you can stop this,"
Alford said about the death penalty earlier today. "Each and every one
of you needs to decide this in your own heart."



Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/12/1482986/jury-deliberates-death-penalty.html?tab=gallery&gallery=/2011/09/06/1465999/closing-arguments-in-stepp-murder.html&gid_index=1#ixzz1Xnd3gZvL

Raleigh man gets life sentence for murder of infant stepdaughter


RALEIGH, N.C. — After a jury failed to reach a unanimous decision, a Superior Court judge sentenced a Raleigh man Tuesday to life in prison without parole for the 2009 murder and sexual assault of his 10-month-old stepdaughter.

The six men and six women spent almost 5½ hours Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning trying to decide whether Joshua Andrew Stepp should get a life or death sentence in the case. They thought they had reached a decision on a life sentence late Monday, but Judge Osmond Smith ordered jurors to continue deliberating after finding that at least one indicated that she had voted for the death penalty.

The decision on sentencing in a capital case must be unanimous. Otherwise, a mistrial is declared, and the defendant automatically receives a life sentence.

Prosecutors asked Smith to hold off on declaring a sentencing mistrial on Monday, saying jurors hadn't deliberated the case long enough.

The forewoman of the jury told Smith Monday that she didn't think jurors could agree on a sentence, but when the jury returned Tuesday morning, she told the judge that they would make another effort at consensus. They deliberated for another two hours Tuesday before declaring an impasse and defaulting to the life sentence.

Juror John Moore of Raleigh said jurors gave "full consideration" to the case before giving up on reaching a unanimous decision on sentencing.

"People were very committed to their positions, and there was no way you were ever going to sway that," Moore said.

Wake County Assistant District Attorney Adam Moyers said he respected the jury's efforts.

"To get 12 people to agree is a high bar," Moyers said. "That's the way it should be."

The jury convicted Stepp, 28, last Thursday of first-degree murder and sex offense of a child in the Nov. 8, 2009, beating death of Cheyenne Yarley.

Prosecutors said Stepp attempted to rape Cheyenne, beat her to death and then lied to her mother, emergency responders and police about what happened.

Stepp, who testified on his own behalf, admitted to killing Cheyenne, although he said he didn't know why he did. He has denied the accusations of sexual assault.

Defense attorneys argued that his actions amounted to second-degree murder, because he was using prescription painkillers and alcohol to treat undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his tour of duty in Iraq, where he saw members of his platoon killed by a roadside bomb.

Stepp will appeal the conviction, defense attorney Tommy Manning said, noting that he remains convinced the case was one of second-degree murder.

Still, Manning said he was pleased with the sentencing.

"We thought this was the correct result. It just took forever to get there," he said.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10125021/