Calling it nothing short of tragic, Starke County Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff announced the arrest of Stacie Brown on Friday who was charged in the death of her three-year-old stepson, Ethan Brown. Charges brought by the Prosecutor include Battery Resulting in Death and Neglect of a Dependent Resulting in Death. Both are Class A Felonies.
Brown claimed the boy struck his head when she shoved him to the floor. She said she was angry because the boy was fighting with her 18-month-old daughter. The pathology report described the injury was due to blunt force trauma to the head.
Even though the incident happened on a Saturday, she admitted to not seeking medical help when he didn’t want to wake up on Sunday. Even when an EMT unit was called to the house to take care of her husband, Trampes, on Sunday, she did not ask them to check the child.
The incident happened June 18th and Bourff said the two detectives, David Combs from the City police, and Ken Pfost of the County took their time in building their case against Stacie Brown.
“Detective Pfost and Detective Combs have spent a considerable amount of time investigating this and we all met with the pathologist this past week and we spent quite a bit of time with him,” said Bourff. “We’ve examined photos, tried to figure out what he’s decided and we believe the facts support these two charges. It does need to be pointed out that she is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
Bourff was asked about the possible sentence if Brown is found guilty of both counts.
“The penalties for each of these counts is 20 to 50 years. If she’s convicted on both of those counts, the Judge, if he wanted to, could decide to sentence her to consecutive sentences. So, she’s looking at a maximum of 100 years.”
