Wlaf1450JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF) – Ashely Ledford and Brandon Stepp were both in court Monday morning in relation to the child abuse charges stemming from a 2019 investigation.
During Monday’s preceedings, state prosecutors sought to have the cases rejoined so the pair could be tried together.
The state made a motion to rejoin the case and try them together “due to the age of the victim,” who was seven at the time of the abuse and is now 11.
“We would rather her not have to testify against her father in one trial and against the only person she knew as her mother in another,” prosecutors said.
Originally the state sought to try the couple together as it was a two defendant indictment, but at the state’s previous request, the defendants were split into two cases. According to the state, this was done because Stepp had been going to be a witness for the state through some agreement, but that “agreement never came to fruition,” according to prosecutors.
Eighth Judicial District Criminal Court Judge Shayne Sexton said this was an unusual request.
“Now an attempt to re-consolidate, that’s highly unusual, not impossible, but unusual,” Sexton said.
Stepp’s attorney spoke, saying they had not been contacted and asked to cooperate.
Stepp is set for a trial settlement conference in January. Judge Sexton said “there is a precedent to establish this service” and the motion to rejoin the cases “would be taken up after that January conference.”
Stepp’s trial settlement conference is set on the docket for January 18.
The couple was initially arrested in February 2019 after a concerned physician notified EMS that a child needed to be seen at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH), according to the arrest report.
Ledford’s trial was scheduled for Sept 14 and 15, but in October the public defender’s office was allowed to withdraw from the case. In court, it was indicated that Ledford has not been assisting with defense and has failed to stay in touch with her attorney. Originally, the public defender’s office asked to be released from the case in Nov. 2020. She has since been assigned a new attorney.
Ledford and Stepp were indicted in April 2019 on three counts each of aggravated child abuse and neglect in a child under 8 years of age. The alleged victim is Stepp’s daughter, who was seven years old at the time.
The couple was initially arrested in February 2019 after a concerned physician notified EMS that a child needed to be seen at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH), according to the arrest report.
When EMS arrived at Stepp’s home, he and his daughter were outside. Stepp told the first responders his daughter had been ill with the flu for roughly four days and that he woke up earlier that day to find the child’s “eye bruised and swollen shut.” The doctor who treated his daughter recommended she be seen at ETCH for further testing, but Stepp failed to take her. A lack of “gas and good tires” had prevented him from seeking medical care for the child, according to the report. When the local physician learned this, he dispatched the EMS crew to transport the child.
Crews found the child “thin and pale” with a “large swollen bruise” over her left eye and cheek, the report said. She also allegedly had a bruise on the bridge of her nose, a knot on the left side of her head, along with bruises on her scalp and above her ear.
A disclosure from the little girl named Ledford as her abuser and her father as being complicit with the abuse. Ledford had “whooped” her while her father did nothing to stop her, the child disclosed. After further questioning, the child told authorities Ledford had been repeatedly abusing her.
Ledford allegedly struck the child frequently “all over body” and would strike her in the head, pull her hair and squeeze parts of her body, the report said.
Staff at ETCH reported the bruises on the child’s face had been “intentional.” (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 12/01/2021-6AM)