GUILTY MA - Dontel Jeffers, 4, beaten to death, Dorchester, 6 March 2005

[mysteriew]

A foster mother was charged with second-degree murder on Thursday in the death of a 4-year-old boy who died in her care in March, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said.

Corinne Stephen, 24, was arrested earlier in the day.

Conley said Dontel Jeffers suffered a series of painful injuries during the 11 days he was in Stephen's care, starting on Feb. 24 until she brought him to a hospital on March 6.

He said witness statements, medical reports and autopsy reports indicate a "pattern of abuse" of Dontel along with two distinct and potentially fatal internal injuries the boy suffered.

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BOS2268/

 

[OkieGranny]

From December 2007:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/12/06/eight_years_in_foster_care_death/

Dontel Jeffers endured excruciating pain in the last hours of his brief life, according to doctors. Yesterday, the only person held accountable for his death, his foster mother, was sentenced to a minimum of eight years in prison.

A jury found Corinne Stephen guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Nov. 16, following a two-week trial...

Stephen had been Dontel's foster mother for 10 days when she carried his lifeless body into the emergency room at Caritas Carney Hospital in Dorchester on March 6, 2005. An autopsy revealed that the 4-year-old boy died from either a forceful squeeze to his neck or a blow to his abdomen that ruptured his bowel.