Jury convicts foster mother

She faces sentencing in 4-year-old's death

Brian R. Ballou

Boston Globe

November 17, 2007

A foster mother accused of causing the death of Dontel Jeffers was found guilty yesterday of involuntary manslaughter for not immediately seeking medical attention after the 4-year-old was severely beaten.

more stories like thisCorinne N. Stephen, 26, had been charged with second-degree murder, but was convicted of the lesser charge after a Suffolk Superior Court jury deliberated for two days.

Prosecutors did not present any direct evidence during the seven-day trial that Stephen abused the child before his death in March 2005. Instead, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David Deakin argued that she should be held responsible for Dontel's death because she refused to seek medical help, even though she knew he was in so much pain that she gave him a massive dose of Tylenol with codeine.

Stephen showed no emotion as the jury foreman read the verdict. But Dontel's grandmother, Agatha Jeffers, and other family members, seated in the front row, shook their heads from side to side, grimaced, and whispered in one another's ears.

Moments later, Judge Margaret Hinkle revoked Stephen's bail and ordered her taken into custody. Stephen is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5; her lawyer, John F. Palmer, vowed to appeal.

Dontel was healthy when he was entrusted to Stephen's care on Feb. 24, 2005. Ten days later, she brought his body to Caritas Carney Hospital with a black eye, ruptured intestine, bruised throat, bruised arms, and ligature marks around his wrists and ankles. Doctors at Caritas tried for 40 minutes to revive the child, but were unsuccessful.

Prosecutors said in a statement after the verdict that Stephen "either inflicted those injuries or allowed another person to inflict them and chose not to provide him with medical treatment that could have saved his life."

In a telephone interview, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said the involuntary manslaughter charge carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years, depending on several factors, including prior criminal history and the nature of the crime. He said it is too early to determine which sentence the Commonwealth will seek but added, "The conduct by the defendant was egregious, and our recommendation will reflect the nature of that."

Conley said that while there was no direct evidence linking Stephen to the abuse, there was a great deal of circumstantial evidence.

"She was very evasive during the nine days that Dontel was in her care, refusing to let people who had previously cared for him into her house to see the boy," Conley said. "Corinne had long fingernails, and the evidence shows that Dontel's face was gouged by what were likely fingernails. And when the police went to her house after Dontel was dead, several people inside the house denied them entry, and when authorities did go in with the defendant, the house had been cleaned with bleach."

Dontel's family left the courthouse without commenting, but later issued a statement through their lawyer, Shawn P. O'Rourke, expressing hope that Stephen receives the maximum sentence.

more stories like this"Dontel was a bright, happy boy who we loved dearly," read the statement, which was signed by Jeffers's father, grandmother, and other relatives. "The details of how Dontel suffered and died are very painful. We take some solace in the fact that Corinne Stephen now stands convicted for Dontel's death. However, it will not bring Dontel back."

"The Jeffers family also hopes that the Department of Social Services has learned from this awful tragedy so this never happens to another child in their custody again," the statement said.

Palmer had argued in Stephen's defense that investigators failed to search hard enough for the real killer, accusing police and prosecutors of not conducting crucial forensic tests on physical evidence that could have identified other people who had contact with Dontel. Palmer told the jury during his closing argument that Stephen was an unlikely killer because she served in the Army National Guard, had taken college-level nursing courses, and drove the boy to the hospital the day he died.

"We're obviously disappointed; this was a very emotional case," Palmer said. He added that the appeal would center on "whether or not mistakes were made," in the judge's initial instructions to the jury.

Earlier in the day, Hinkle responded to a question submitted Thursday by the jury. The question read, "In the charge of second-degree murder, does the term act include the failure to act as outlined in the charge of second-degree murder." Hinkle looked at the jurors and responded, "An act includes making a conscious, deliberate, intentional decision not to do something when there is a duty to do something."

Steve Stephen, the defendant's father, defended her outside the courtroom. "I know my daughter; she is not the monster that the prosecution made her out to be in there," he said. "I wouldn't say she caused the death, but she could have been a bit more responsible to his needs."

Andrew Ryan and John R. Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report.