Stacey Schuchart North Kentucky mother pleads guilty to beating 17 month old son to death with injuries similar to those sustained from car accident.
A Kentucky mother awaits her fate as she now awaits sentencing after pleading guilty last week to savagely beating her 17 month old son to death in 2019.
Stacey Schuchart, 32, of Dayton, pleaded guilty last week to a single count of murder, according to documents filed in Campbell County Circuit Court. She previously pleaded not guilty in November 2019.
Schuchart was home alone with her 1-year-old son, Sean Buttery Jr., and her 3-year-old daughter on the afternoon of Aug. 16, 2019, when she called 911 and reported Sean had hit his head on the microwave and wasn’t breathing.
Emergency responders arrived at the house and discovered Sean in critical condition, ‘with a collection of injuries beyond bumping his head on the microwave,’ court documents read.
Sean was rushed to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center where attempts to save the child’s life were unsuccessful, with the boy mortally succumbing to his injuries, cincinnati.com reported.
‘Emotionless and nonchalant…’
The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office performed an autopsy and found the cause of death was ‘homicidal violence,’ documents stated. The investigation found that any supposed contact between Sean’s head and the microwave didn’t contribute to his death.
Instead, investigators found bruises covering Sean’s head, as well as injuries to the brain and eyes that were the result of multiple blunt impacts, with injuries similar to those incurred in ‘a serious automobile accident’ rather than an at-home incident WLWT reported.
Investigators also found severe injuries to the child’s pelvis, consistent with him being stomped on or struck by a heavy object while on the floor, cited documents stated. The coroner’s office determined Sean had been ‘beaten to death.’
Documents say the injuries happened while Schuchart was alone with her two children and that she was the only one present at the time who was capable of causing Sean’s injuries.
Sean’s father, who left early for work on the day of Sean’s death and didn’t leave his workplace until after learning of his son’s injuries, indicated that Sean was uninjured the night before, according to the documents.
A neighbor who wished to remain anonymous told WLWT that he spoke to Schuchart at least twice in the weeks following Sean’s death. The person described her as being ’emotionless’ and ‘nonchalant’ when discussing her son’s beating death.
The children were not legally allowed to be in Schuchart’s care at the time of the incident, documents state, adding they had been removed from her home and placed in the temporary custody of her sister by court order.
Prior abuse
The children had been living with Schuchart illegally for almost a month. It remained unclear how the mother was able to regain access to the children.
Also not clear is how the children came to be removed in the first place.
Schuchart is scheduled for sentencing on March 29, court records show. The Campbell County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office is recommending a sentence of 35 years in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years.
According to the documents, that sentence will run consecutive to any backup time Schuchart may have from previous convictions in Kenton and Campbell counties.
