March 24, 2025 • 41 mins
Stephan Sterns wants to keep his trial private and is arguing to bar the public and media from the courtroom.
Sterns’ public defender, Alesha Smith, presented a PowerPoint to the judge showing how many podcasts, TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube accounts are following the case. She called the coverage “unprecedented” and argued it would make a fair trial impossible.
Minch Minchin, representing several news organizations, countered that Florida and U.S. courts consistently rule proceedings should remain open. “Prominence does not produce prejudice, and juror impartiality does not require ignorance,” Minchin said.
Judge Keith Carsten said he would rule within 10 days.
Meanwhile, authorities released 35 recorded jail calls between Sterns and his parents. In the recordings, Sterns said he found Maddie “ice cold” with her lips “turning blue.” He also said he wished he had called 911. His mother, Debra Sterns, replied, “I wish you had too.”
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Philip Dubé - Former Court-Appointed Counsel, Los Angeles County Public Defenders: Criminal & Constitutional Law, Forensics & Mental Health Advocacy
- Caryn Stark - Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and Consultant; Instagram: carynpsych, FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice
- Tom Smith - Former NYPD Detective for 30 years, Co-Host of the GOLD SHIELDS Podcast; FB & Instagram: @thegoldshieldshow
- Barry Hutchison - Former 26-year Law Enforcement Veteran and Detective, Owner & Chief Investigator for Barry & Associates Investigative Services located in Kansas & Missouri
- Anna Sonoda - Child Sex Abuse and Grooming Expert, Clinical Social Worker [counsels convicted sex offenders]; Author of "Duck Duck Groom: Understanding How a Child Becomes a Target”
- Joseph Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author of "Blood Beneath My Feet," and Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;" X: @JoScottForensic
- Shannon Butler - Investigative Reporter at WFTV Channel 9 in Florida
- Dave Mack -CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporte
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a murder suspect now claiming
he he has PTSD post traumatic stress syndrome. After he
finds Mattie's Soto, just fourteen years old, he finds her
(00:22):
already ice cold with blue lips. This revealed and a
stunning secret jailhouse recorded call. He's also whining about his
mattress and his food, and we learn as he's whining
to mommy and daddy on the phone, he actually blames
Maddie's mother, Jin Soto, for her daughter's sex abuse and murder.
(00:47):
I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
being with us.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I think to do just a mess with the Honestly,
this places silty and untanned carrying one little sins pastiable link.
It surrounded like crazy es at a time.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Oh, it's not the Rists, not the Rits. You're charged
with murder, Stephan Stearns, the murder of a fourteen year
old little girl. Hello, I know you're watching the jailhouse
TV on your phone. According to police, thousands of images
(01:20):
of fourteen year old Maddie's Soto were found naked, being
raped and more. Okay, that's you, and now you're complaining
about your mattress, going so far as to give the
jail a one star review on yelp. What are you thinking?
(01:42):
The stories are changing? And all I can say is,
thank you Heaven for technology, or I would never be
able to hear what Stephan Stearns is claiming, for instance,
that his girlfriend Jen Soto, she's the one to blame
for little Maddie's rape and sex abuse and so much more.
(02:04):
And he's now saying, wait for it, that he found
Maddie's body ice cold, her lips blue.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Listen, just see.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Her pale face and through lips, and how I was
cold she was And it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, I remember seeing my brother when he had passed away,
and this is the last thing I remember seeing him.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
So there, you know, it's just you can tell, yes,
you can my dad.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
When we're gone, really really truly gone. It's just there's
nothing you can do coming back.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Well, you could get the death penalty, you could do that.
But whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. Okay with me an
all star pound, it makes sense of what I'm mean.
And I've got a ton of these deal house calls.
I don't know if I can even get through them,
because each one is a bombshell. This is going to
be hard. But Joe Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, I'll give
him the whole intro in a moment, but just one word.
(03:10):
What was this girl's cod cause of death? One word?
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Yeah, with strangulation Nancy up close and personal with his
hands wrapped around her neck.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Shannon Butler joining me, investigative reporter WFTV Channel nine, in
this jurisdiction in Florida, Shannon, there's so much in these
jailhouse calls and I cannot wait for them to be
played in front of a jury. From giving the jailhouse
a one story view on Yelp for their food and
Mattress whining about the lights, it goes on and on,
(03:41):
blaming Jen Soto, Mattie's mother, for her sex abuse and murder.
But now and I find more probative, Shannon, he's giving
more stories about how Maddie was killed. And the reason
I went to Joe Scott Morgan for Pete's saint. He's
a death investigator a thousand K under his belt is
because you hear him on the jailhouse call stating that
(04:06):
when you find them that way that's really going to
stay with you when you find them that way, and
they compare the mom and dad compare Mattie's murder to
an elderly uncle or brother passing away from old age.
Mattie was strangled dead, likely after being raped. What is
(04:30):
this guy thinking?
Speaker 6 (04:31):
Well, and according to him, he knew that right, because
he also says on these calls that he had seen
her autopsy. But what he could not explain, even to
his parents when they tried to ask some questions, was
what happened between eleven PM when she supposedly went upstairs
with him in that bedroom and what happened at dawn
where he now says he found her. So the parents
kind of asked, well, you know what happened. He's like, well,
(04:53):
you know, I don't know. I just came back in
the room. I can't sleep at night, so she started
with me in the room. Then I up and walked
around the house because you know, I can never sleep,
And when I came back, that's how I found her.
Could not explain all of those hours before he now
says he found her body, which is a story, by
the way, that we had never heard. We've heard a
(05:13):
few stories from him. But this was the first time
we heard that too.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Shanna Butler, joining US investigative reporter WFTV. I am beside myself,
not only that this fourteen year old girl died in
her own home with her mom snoring away in the
next room or a few rooms over, but could you
just give everyone a refresher a nutshell, a cliff note
(05:41):
on what was found on Stearns's own cell phone after
he tried to wipe it up all its information.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Oh, horrifying images of abusing Madeline Soto since she was eight, nine,
ten years old. That's the video videos that they found
on his phone. He tried to get rid of him,
He didn't. That was, you know, obviously immediate red flag
(06:09):
for law enforcement. And now to say, you know, I
didn't have anything to do with any of this. She
slept with me, None of this, you know, happened. I
had left, and you know, I guess he must have
forgotten that they had lots and lots of video of
what happens in the evening.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You know, it's amazing to me, and I'm gonna play
in just a moment how his mom totally enabling him,
saying this was forced on you. You were set up and
actually telling him, yeah, you have PTSD because you found
her body. Okay to Phillip Dbay joining me up, Philip,
(06:46):
we're not in court. Okay, you don't have to impress
a high pain client. So don't throw any Latin phrases
at me. Let's not make anything up. Just spinning out
a whole cloth. What kind of a sick freak not
only repeatedly rapes a child and over but films it one.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Who engages in what I call virtual porn. That would
be the defense because they have to prove, according to
a case from the US Supreme Court dating back to
two thousand and two called Ashcroft, that.
Speaker 8 (07:18):
It is a live person.
Speaker 7 (07:20):
You're looking at me like I'm nuts, but that is
a valid First Amendment defense.
Speaker 8 (07:25):
How are they going to lay a foundation?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, Jackie, I need a nitro glistening peel, and I
need it right now. Okay, First Amendment, right to free speech.
Speaker 8 (07:37):
Correct political cultural That.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
May in California, but I guarantee you it's not going
to work in Florida. Did you just say virtual porn
could be a defense.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
I'm sorry, Well, to the sex crimes.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Why did I open Pandora's books and ask him a question.
Speaker 9 (07:58):
Never mind a race erase, Let's go back to the
jail house calls, guys, while Dobay Steve's in his own
juices coming up with a zaney defense of virtual porn.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Let's listen to more of Stephan Stearn's jail house calls. Now.
In this one, he is blaming Jen Soto, Mattie's mom,
And yes, there's a lot to be said about her,
but how can you blame her for Maddie's rape and murder?
But but just listen, you know, Stepan, I can't help
(08:35):
forget the feeling that none.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Of this that was on the phone with a surprise.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
She was awareness that certain feelings towards with Yeah, well
why you She used to joke about it, you know
Ford an electric conspect you better not leave me for
my daughter? Was your older like Ted ask about an
(09:01):
age and most uber meaning comments on me and talk
about me together and jiggle and talk about how nice
I loved it was. It was not an appropriate situation.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Like murder is okay? Wait that just I can hardly
piece this apart. Shannon Butler helped me. I got to
bring in a shrink also to explain what, it's an
electric complex. But I'm not a shrink, neither of you.
You give me the facts. Did you hear what he
just says? The mom says, basically, Jen Soto set you up,
(09:36):
that she was quote aware of Maddie's feelings about me
and the mom this. Deborah sterns, well, then why would
she send her in there to sleep with you?
Speaker 10 (09:48):
Like what?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Like it's it's Jim's fault and I'm certainly not defending
the mother. He says. She used to joke about it,
you know, call it Electra and warn me I could
never leave her for her daughter. What is he talking about, Shannon?
Speaker 6 (10:06):
Well, remember there's all these conversations about how Jena always
thought this was kind of a Woody Allen situation and
that that could happen. So it was very clear that
Jen Soto had some indication that something was just not
right in this relationship, but for whatever reason, that did
not change her. Letting you know, Madeline Soto sleep with him,
(10:31):
sleep with both of them. It is so bizarre to me.
And this is what, at least here in Orlando, all
the viewers get so upset over this. When they hear
stuff like that, they immediately believe that Jen Sodo had
to have known something and that nothing's happened in that case. Right,
she is not charged with anything, And people just can't
(10:54):
understand how a mother would joke about anything like that.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
And even when I hear, we go, why why why?
Shannon Shannon, Shannon Shannon, hold on, you're jumping on the bandwagon.
And yes, I've got huge problems with gen Soto, huge
sending her daughter off to sleep, and this was much
younger than fourteen alone with her living boyfriend. But she
(11:19):
Jen Soto may have been wrong. Well, forget it, she
was wrong. That's a whole other can of worms. Maybe
they haven't charged her because they want her testimony. I
don't know what they're doing. And of course she hasn't
been charged. She's innocent until proven guilty. I'm talking about
the murder. Tom Smith is joining me, former NYP detective.
(11:46):
I'm beside myself. Oh guys, if you want to find
Tom Smith, he is co host of the gold Shield
Show at goldshieldshow dot com. Why I've got a dead
fourteen year old girl body dumped. Video has emerged of
what we believe is Stephan Stern's dumping her limp body
(12:09):
Another bombshell tonight is that dcomp enzymes from dcomp are
found on the front seat of the car where he
Stephan Stearns had Maddie buckled in like they're riding to school.
She decomped onto the front seat. Yeah, explain that, sterns
(12:35):
how are you gonna blame Jens Soto for that? And listen,
Tom Smith, I'm not defending Jen Soto. I'm talking about
the murder and Stephan Stern's blaming her. I mean, it's
always like this, It's always this pointing the finger at
somebody else.
Speaker 11 (12:54):
Right, this is a monster, bottom line, end of discussion,
where he the life of this young girl and just
blames everybody else for his actions. He's very well aware
what he did and how he did it, but tends
to let's deflect to this and that. I mean, he
is a flat out monster. And the other part of this,
like you said, this girl was surrounded by people that
(13:17):
enabled him to do this, and she was the poor
victim in this case. Mom, this guy's parents all having
an understanding of what was going on and let it
happen and inevitably just took her life.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Philip D. Bay A veteran trial lawyer out of LA County.
Don't you just love when you find out what your
client's really thinking on jail house calls. It's not like
they don't know they're being recorded. Every thirty seconds or so,
there's a recording that states you were on a jail line.
Everybody knows what's happening, but yet they still blab Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
I don't know where that whole phenomenon comes from, except
to say that they think that if they change their
original story into multiple iterations of how it could have
gone down, that they're saving their hide. But the truth
is they're creating multiple inconsistencies and points toward guilt. I
tell every client the initial consult don't talk to anybody.
(14:13):
Don't talk on the phone about your case. You have
to just talk about the weather, talk about your favorite holiday,
talk about how much you miss everybody, but don't get
into the facts of your case.
Speaker 8 (14:24):
Otherwise you know what happens.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
I get a terabiede of data on an external hard
drive that I got to listen to from the DA's
office and then have to sit out and lock up
and play for the client. And what does it really
amount to? Additional inculpatory evidence.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Hey, Anna Sonoda, question to you, Anna Sinoda, child's six
abiece and grooming expert, social worker and author of Duck
Duck Groom. Can we just get real for a moment
about what this little girl just just turned fourtean. This
is like thirty six hours out after her thirteenth birthday party,
(15:01):
after her fourteenth birthday party, right, she just turned she's
practically thirteen. What she went through on a nightly basis
with her mother down the hall snoring away. This is a.
Speaker 12 (15:15):
Horrific case, Nancy, and it has been since we started
discussing it over a year ago when she was first missing.
What we have to remember is that cases like Maddie's
are happening across this country every day. And what we
can do and what we can help share with your
audience and your listeners is that predators seek out single parents,
(15:37):
often single mothers, who have multiple vulnerabilities, whether it's as
work schedule, whether it's insecure finances. And Stearns took advantage
at every single turn because he knew that he wanted
access to or Maddie, and unfortunately, tragically she was the
(15:57):
victim through and through in this case. It's my understanding
that Jessica has that Jennifer excuse me.
Speaker 13 (16:05):
Has immunity from within.
Speaker 14 (16:08):
This case, and she is giving as much information to
the police and investigators in order for Stearns to face
the full face of justice here in this case.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Well, I discovered her.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
In the state that you were in after everything with
doing so, Philip debay, why didn't he call nine on one?
If you just found her quote ice cold with blue lips,
why do you think it was a better idea to
(16:44):
dress her up in school clothes and strap her dead
body into his car and drive around like he was
taking her to school and then throw away her laptop
and her backpack and throw her body in a densely
wooded area when he could have just called nine one one, thoughts.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
The only arguments that he and Avail himself to is
that he was trying to protect the mother. That they're
believe it or not, there was still some type of
feelings toward the mother and he didn't want her to
get into trouble, and certainly he did not want to
be accused of doing anything to the child.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
So what do you do. The first thing that comes
to mind is you ditch the evidence. If you will.
Speaker 7 (17:18):
And in this particular case, it happens to be the
remains of his child, and he was in panic mode.
And what do you do in panic mode? You don't
think things through. You do things sort of off the cuff,
like an amateur. And he got caught.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Okay, so hold on, are you actually going along with
this theory filed debay that he found Maddy did no.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
Not in the least. But if I had to defend him,
that would be the argument. Believe me, this man would
not want me on his jury. But I'm just saying
that if I were commissioned by the court to defend him,
I would argue to the jury that he had no
hand in her death, had nothing to do with it,
and point the finger to a third party culprit.
Speaker 8 (17:58):
And who would be the easy dupe in this case,
the mother.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Okay, you would actually say that to a jury, even
though you believe it's a lie.
Speaker 7 (18:05):
There is no room for political correctness in a criminal trial.
If you're going to worry about what the public, what
the court.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I'm not asking what the public thinks, I'm asking you.
Could you argue that to a straight face with do
a jury when you believe in your heart, he did.
Speaker 8 (18:22):
It, of course.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
Look, my beliefs, my personal judgment do not shade or
color how I defend a client. All I need to
know is that my theories are supported by sufficient evidence.
If they are supported, I think it would be legal
malpractice not to present it on the client's behalf and
leave it in the hands of a jury to decide what,
if anything, to do with it. But to just leave it,
(18:45):
I could see an appellated attorney all over it on appeal,
especially if he's condemned for murder.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Guys, we're talking about Stepan Stearn's secret jailhouse calls just
revealed now here. He seems to blame Maddie's murder on
lack of boundaries and poor quote sleeping arrangements.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Listen, you know always had an issue with boundaries. She
never respected any boundaries that I tried to say. You know,
I be gotten argument on more than one occasion about
just sleeping arrangement. So I know what baker, you know,
keep sleep her own room and said you hear this
way for me to wake her up.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
When you hear me, and hold on, Joe Scott Morgan,
help me. Joe Scott Morgan is joining me. Professor Forensics,
Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon,
star of a hit podcast series Body Bags with Joseph
Scott Morgan. It goes on and on. Joe Scott, do
(19:50):
you hear this. I don't know how many child murder
cases you have dealt with, but Stephan Stearns, charged in
Maddie's Soto's murder, says, I beg the mom make her
sleep in her own room, and so I raped her.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
It's beyond bizarre. When you begin to think about this
and over and over and over again, think about it
is from an evidentiary standpoint, this guy has literally literally
documented his steps up to the gallows. When you begin
to think about this, over all of these years, relative
to these horrible images that have been recovered, and then
(20:30):
we have to get to this point where he is
finding her, finding her cold, her lips are blue, these
sorts of things. I'll tell you why her lips are blue,
because if in fact, we are to believe and I
do what the medical examiner said, that this is an
asphyxial death viz. A VI strangulation, that means that she
(20:52):
would have become cyonautic as hands perhaps his, were wrapped
around her throat and squeezed the life out of her.
So her lips are in fact going to turn blue.
It's not just as a result of decompositional changes. You
have this that's going on, and we still don't know
everything relative to the autopsy report. One of the things
(21:13):
that they're thinking about, and they have expressed concern, and
I use that terming quotes, is the highroid bone. There's
something that they're seeing with the hyoid bone and Nancy,
as you well know, generally the only way that a
hyoid bone becomes fractured is by applying direct pressure.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Crime stores with Nancy Grace Scott. Whenever anyone says highoid bone,
I feel it's important that we show where the hyoid
is if you could.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
Yeah, it's the only non articulating bone in the body.
That means it doesn't connect to any other bony structures.
It's sole purpose, Nancy, is to anchor the tongue in
the back of the neck or in the back of
the throat. So it's right in this and it's it's
kind of we describe it in forensicology as being bird shape,
all right, but it's kind of in a horseshoe shape
(22:12):
and it anchors the tongue in the back.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Of the throat like a wishbone. It kind of.
Speaker 5 (22:17):
Does, only without the little stem on it. Okay, but it.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Looks more's not really attached to any bonds. It's not
like the hip bone connected.
Speaker 8 (22:24):
To that's the leg bone.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
It's connected just hanging there.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
Yeah, it is. And it's got two horns, two well,
two major horns and lesser horns that are up here.
And when it's snapped, you can see these little fracture
lines and there'll be focal areas of hemorrhage in there
as well. They're seeing something there, Nancy. This is repeated
over and over again relative to the highwaid bone. They
have concern about it. That means direct pressure would have
(22:50):
had been applied in order to fracture this thing, and
that means coming in with a sea clamp or throttling
this sort of thing in order to choke the life
out of this job.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So, guys, not with what Joe Scott said all correct
time might have from what we've been able to glean
from a word about the autopsy report. What is Stephan
Strange's response he says, no one respected my boundaries, and
then he blames the whole thing because Jim Sooto didn't
(23:25):
give him any privacy. You have got to hear this.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
He didn't have any privacy, you know, just for ourselves.
And she was suggs, Well, maybe you should go to
see United States. Taking it was like a twin bed
and I know six plus seaton. You know, why would
I want to do that because of sleeping, our begging us.
You should have broken up for a long time ago
into the business.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Hell yeah, I think they do just a mess with
the honest with This place is silthy and untanitary and
one little fans factory will blank it s out of
my crazyes all the time.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Well, it's not the risk.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
We're all very happy to you reunited anything lunch since
we've all.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Seen each other.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
And there's no reason that I want to have taken
all of that up for literally no reason hurt or.
Speaker 10 (24:15):
And this, no there is.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
But there's jealousy on the other side too. I mean,
he told you, I hope you don't need You've.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Heard my daughter that tells me that she was thinking about.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
That for a while.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Guys, we are getting a treasure trove of evidence. Just release.
These are secretly recorded jailhouse calls. Now, I don't know
how secret they are, because typically in jailhouse calls, you
hear on the line the caller and the receiver of
the call can hear a recording stating that this is
a call from a CI correctional institute. Everybody knows they're recorded.
(24:50):
I guess they think the prosecutors just won't make the
effort to listen to them. Well, guess what they did.
Joining me now, special guest, Barry Hutchinson, twenty six year
years in LA now owner of Barry and Associates Investigative Services. Barry,
thank you for being with us. Barry. Here, we hear
it goes on and on and on. We hear Stefan
(25:13):
Stearns and mother Deborah Stearns stating Jen Soto had been
thinking about this for a long time. They're basically trying
to blame Jen Soto for her daughter's murder. Did you
hear that?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I think that this whole family is so screwed up?
I guarantee you.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Barry Hutchinson, I don't care. I don't care who has
a history of what we're at the innoceus guilt phase.
This is going to a trial. I don't care who
wet their bed when they were three years old, don't care.
(25:56):
I care who killed this little girl, who ra her
repeatedly and murdered her. Now we hear Stephan Stearn's claiming
that jen Soto, the mother, had been quote thinking about
this for a long time. We see where he's going
with this.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Oh yeah, he's going to try to point the accusatory
finger toward her, you know, to a certain degrade, to
take some of the heat off him. But you know what,
when you've got a dead body on video leaning to
the left and of vehicle that's been seen, and then
you have a cadaver or dog get a hit on
trace chemical for a decomposition, I think there's a couple
of males in your coffin their palth.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Well, you know, debate. You actually have a little bit
of a leg to stand on in that there's a
way for this guy to escape the death penalty. I'll
tell you what I think it is. The jury will
be angry at Jenston, and they may partially blame her
for ignoring the fact right under her and no just
(26:57):
rubbing her nose in it that Stephan Stearns, her live
in boyfriend Mooch, does he even have a job, was
sleeping with her daughter every night. The little girl says
she wanted to go live in the woods. Wonder why
so the jury, right or wrong, may partially blame Jinsoto
(27:18):
for the situation and reason, well, she's not getting convicted,
I sure as hgl and not sending him to the
death penalty.
Speaker 7 (27:29):
I agree with you one hundred percent on that they're
not even assuming that they think mom had a hand
in it by looking the other way with you know,
blissful ignorance and blind fate, whatever.
Speaker 8 (27:41):
You want to call it. He is the one on trial,
not her.
Speaker 7 (27:46):
His only other hope to be spirit of death is
the new law in Florida where they allow for an
eight to four verdict in the penalty phase to execute
if they come back let's say eight to four or
nine to three or some other non unanimous split that
could spare him death.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Guys, there's more of Stefan Stearn's whining, and I haven't
even gotten him whining about his mattress and the food.
So far, he's been blaming gen Soto for Maddie's death,
and we're all angry. The gen Soto allowed a situation
where her daughter slept night after night after night with
her mooch living boyfriend, but to blame her for the
(28:26):
murder itself is a whole another thing, And that sounds
like what he and his mommy and daddy are cooking up.
Remember the mommy and the daddy not charged with anything.
Oh and I haven't even got to them claiming that
he has PTSD because he found the body. I mean, really,
but that said, listen to this.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
I wish I had done the correct thing to begin with.
You know, I wish on downstairs and shaking her away
from a cold nine one all day. Had I wish
she had too, maybe she could have been saved. But
you know, I'm sure true beyond that.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Dave Mac joining me, Crime Stories investigative reporter who has
poured through every one of these recordings word by word,
Dave Mac, can you believe what you're hearing? I wish
I had found her, end quote, shaken her away and
call nine to one one? Yeah, why didn't you? They
are feeding into it. The mommy and the daddy are
(29:29):
basically feeding your baby boy on a silver spoon, a
whole plateful of bs.
Speaker 10 (29:36):
Yep, And I think that we're seeing that played out
where he, for some reason, is trying to snow job
his parents just and believe that they're believing him. And
that's when when his mother says, you know, are they
are they treating you for PTSD after what you've found?
I mean, they're living in a real fantasy world, Nancy.
This is only something that a child, and I mean
(29:57):
a child talks to their parents like this. But we're
dealing with somebody who supposedly an adult grown up man
and two adult grown up parents, and they're acting like
with the six year old who got caught cheating in
first grade on his spelling jets.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Man, you put it better than I could have, Dave Mack, So, Dave,
listen to this. His new story is evolving, and Debay,
prick your ears up on this, because this is where
the defense is going. There's a whole new story about
how Maddie died in China, you know, on the Wizard
of Oz when Dorothy catches the wizard working the machines
(30:35):
and he says, don't look at the man behind the curtain.
I guess they want the jury not to remember all
the rape videos of this little girl on stuff on
Stearn's phone and that hyoid bone being broken or dislodged,
like Joe Scott Morgan was just describing. Yeah, don't look
at that, look at this. Listen to the new theory emerged.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
He was in a different part of the house. Yeah,
she wasn't with you.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Well, she had going to be with me earlier the night,
but I left her alone for quite a while, so
I was pretty she talked her around and you know,
haunting right now, what can I.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Do crime stories with Nancy Grace?
Speaker 10 (31:31):
Were you awake when she went when her came into
the room with you?
Speaker 11 (31:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:37):
And she was fine when she came into your room?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
What what not at night?
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Was that hitting eleven or show?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I'm not sure? Okay, so she was fine.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
So what happened between eleven.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
And whenever you found it?
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Oh that's the really other.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Question, that is the main question. So Dave Matt is
he true? Is he actually going to say she came
into my bedroom because they just don't have boundaries, They
didn't respect my privacy. And then he goes outside to
breathe in the night air, right, and he comes back
and she's dead, and instead of calling nine one one,
(32:13):
and she's cold. By the way, Joe Scott Morgan's gonna
have a field day with the fact that she was
already cold to the touch. He finds her call to
the touch and then decides instead of calling nine one
one that he'll just dress her for school's trapper, body
in the car, drive around, and then dump her body.
Is that right, Dave.
Speaker 10 (32:30):
Mac That is what he's shoveling.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
But I found something fascinating in the way he's.
Speaker 10 (32:35):
Talking to his parents, because he tries to pull them
back into things they remember from him as a child,
like when he talked about how he had left her
alone for a while, and he mentions walking around the
house and he called it haunting around the house as
I like to do. He's trying to relate this so
it's something that they can understand and identify with and
(32:57):
believe him because to anybody else, look his story, You're
going this is total dyes. But his parents, he can
milk these moments of past and president and blur them
together so that they're like, hey, yeah, I want to
believe my son. I want to believe he's telling the truth,
and that's where he gives them those bits that make
(33:17):
no sense to us, but that they can hold on to.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Oh, the devil is in the detailed stern, please keep talking.
Listen to this.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Well, I discovered her in the state she was in
after everything was having done. So I mean, I obviously
I can't get into detail, but no, I was not
aware that she had passed on. And you know, I'm
looking down throughout the night, and I was not in
(33:48):
the room the whole time.
Speaker 9 (33:49):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
So he wasn't aware she was passed on, yet he
found her a call to the touch with her lips blue.
Now the dad realizes the story is not yelling listen,
and it was just not like you.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
You know, you just suddenly feel someone's goes to pass
away from them. You know, it's to discovery. And he
wasn't leave in those same room with you. Well, I mean,
she was in the room that I started him. But
you know, I'm looking towns forout the night, and I
tend to wander around the house, she fiddle around on
my phone and step out trying to feel the nice
(34:23):
cool night air and all that.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
There we go with a nice cool night air again.
Karen stark. Do you hear him? Later on he even
suggests that someone had drugged Maddie, and he clearly indicates
that would be her mother. How much more blame can
he heap on other people? Claiming he was wandering around
(34:47):
the house and while he was wandering, he came back
in and found her bed.
Speaker 13 (34:50):
Let's be perfectly clear. What's going on here is a
cover up and denial. How does he explain the fact
that he took all those photos, the ones that were
on his phone, and try to erase them to make
sure nobody would find them. Why would he get rid
of her possessions. He's just passing along the blame and
(35:11):
his parents are going along with it, I hypothesized, because
it's their son, so they're trying to make sense.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Out of it.
Speaker 13 (35:20):
But all of this trying to shield the fact that
this is a monster, a murderer, that he actually killed
this girl. And he's saying, as an adult that somebody
was forcing him to sleep with her, to be with her,
encouraging it, and he had nothing to do with this
(35:40):
mature man who's become an infant and totally innocent. We
know that that is not true.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
Well, I'm assuming that they are treating you for PTSB
because you found the body, not to mention everything.
Speaker 13 (35:56):
Else that went along with that, treating with.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Her or anything except my flood pressure.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Well, they need to do the PTSD because you're not needing.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Well, you know, I keep telling myself that to maintain
myself chasing questioning God, I have nothing.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Now listen to this. Does anybody know the meaning of narcissist?
Here we hear Stephan Stearns asking his parents to dump
money into an account for a trust fund for him
for him after they die.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Shall prospect her. It's going to be difficult to come by.
I might need some sort of resources to help me
get back up my sheet immediately until I can work
out being the coop situation.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yeah, I don't know what that would be.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
But because maybe we may be we may be gone
by the time you get out.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
I don't know any way, we might be able to
sit up sort of a trust truck or.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Something, a trust fund. Dave, Matt, what did I just you.
Speaker 10 (37:00):
Know, I just heard more and more bs lies between
Sterns trying to sell a bill of goods to his parents.
But something that I'm caught with, Nancy is how a
couple of times during the course of these thirty five
phone calls, he actually sterns mentions hurting his defense by
saying something or giving too many details. And if we're
(37:21):
truly seeking the truth, and he's truly an innocent man
who did nothing wrong, that type of truth is something
you want everybody to hear. So you would be saying
these details for all the world to hear, because you're
an innocent guy. They got the wrong man. You know,
anything would do, but he keeps covering up. He can't
even tell the truth to his parents because he sold
(37:42):
them a bill of goods that they're buying into Our
baby boy would never do this. It's her fault. The
evil girls in his life, the females in his life,
did wrong, and he's the victim.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Yeah, I remember Karen start how he was talking about
how Maddie who's thirteen, and her mother ogled him and
admired him and made a big fuss about him. It's
their fault, I mean narcissism. He wants his parents, who
are retired, to set him up a trust fund of
(38:13):
their money to support him when he gets out and
after they die. That's what's his that's what's on his mind.
Speaker 13 (38:20):
Well, of course, Nancy, there's no guilt there because he
can't feel. But all he's worried about is what's going
to happen in his future. Let them infantilize him and
feel like they have to take care of him. It's
all so typical. I can't think of a single sexual abuser, really,
somebody who rapes children who doesn't wind up saying that
(38:43):
the children wanted it, that it's perfectly normal, it's okay
to do this, and he fixed the bill.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Well, you're right, Karen Start Barry Hutchinson twenty five years
in LA now chief investigator Barry and Associates. Barry he
actually said she started it talking about the little girl.
Maddie started the little station.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
The whole thing just sounds so sick, But you know,
that's a commonality in these abusers. You know, they, like
you said earlier, they always try to circumvent guilt of
their self by saying that somebody else is the one
that initiated the contact, or they're the ones that initiated
the abuse. It's just the way that these pedophiles think,
(39:30):
you know, and it makes me sick, literally, I mean,
child abuse cases like this. I mean, that was the
one thing in all my career and law enforcement that
used to bother me the most whenever you had, you know,
cases like this where you know there's an innocent victim
that's a child, and you feel like you're sitting in
a chair with your hands and your arms tied. You
(39:51):
can't do anything about it as an investigator looking at
this pos sitting across from you at a table, knowing,
damn good and well that you feel like just choking
him to death right there at that point, but you can't.
And yet they have the audacity to sit there and
try to put this whole BS story on you to
make you feel sorry for them, and we have to
(40:13):
kind of play along with it and be a good
actor to try to extricate information from them that's going
to put them away for the rest of their life
where they can't do it to another child.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Scott Morgan, have you seen it all now, Stefan Stearns.
Once I trust fund set up my mommy and daddy.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
Yeah. One of the most glaring things is that when
his dad actually said, well we might be gone, did
you hear that? And then he just continues on with
this through line of all about him. He didn't pause
for a moment and say, well, my god, that's horrible.
Please don't say that that you're going to be gone
(40:50):
or the mom's going to be gone now. And that's
not what it's about. It's about him, you know, moving forward,
and he's going to need money when he gets out,
to get back on his feet. And you know, that
shows you the level of callousness. And he's doing this
to his parents, how much more so, how much more
so Nancy a thirteen year old little girl that he's
(41:12):
been victimizing, allegedly lo these many years. He's that callous.
He's that very callous. He's not genetically connected to her, Nancy.
He just views her as something that is disposable. And
as we found out, she was kind of tossed away
like rubbish, wasn't she?
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Manny Soto was not disposable. Nancy Grace signing off goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a murder suspect now claiming
he he has PTSD post traumatic stress syndrome. After he
finds Mattie's Soto, just fourteen years old, he finds her
(00:22):
already ice cold with blue lips. This revealed and a
stunning secret jailhouse recorded call. He's also whining about his
mattress and his food, and we learn as he's whining
to mommy and daddy on the phone, he actually blames
Maddie's mother, Jin Soto, for her daughter's sex abuse and murder.
(00:47):
I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
being with us.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I think to do just a mess with the Honestly,
this places silty and untanned carrying one little sins pastiable link.
It surrounded like crazy es at a time.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Oh, it's not the Rists, not the Rits. You're charged
with murder, Stephan Stearns, the murder of a fourteen year
old little girl. Hello, I know you're watching the jailhouse
TV on your phone. According to police, thousands of images
(01:20):
of fourteen year old Maddie's Soto were found naked, being
raped and more. Okay, that's you, and now you're complaining
about your mattress, going so far as to give the
jail a one star review on yelp. What are you thinking?
(01:42):
The stories are changing? And all I can say is,
thank you Heaven for technology, or I would never be
able to hear what Stephan Stearns is claiming, for instance,
that his girlfriend Jen Soto, she's the one to blame
for little Maddie's rape and sex abuse and so much more.
(02:04):
And he's now saying, wait for it, that he found
Maddie's body ice cold, her lips blue.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Listen, just see.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Her pale face and through lips, and how I was
cold she was And it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, I remember seeing my brother when he had passed away,
and this is the last thing I remember seeing him.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
So there, you know, it's just you can tell, yes,
you can my dad.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
When we're gone, really really truly gone. It's just there's
nothing you can do coming back.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Well, you could get the death penalty, you could do that.
But whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. Okay with me an
all star pound, it makes sense of what I'm mean.
And I've got a ton of these deal house calls.
I don't know if I can even get through them,
because each one is a bombshell. This is going to
be hard. But Joe Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, I'll give
him the whole intro in a moment, but just one word.
(03:10):
What was this girl's cod cause of death? One word?
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Yeah, with strangulation Nancy up close and personal with his
hands wrapped around her neck.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Shannon Butler joining me, investigative reporter WFTV Channel nine, in
this jurisdiction in Florida, Shannon, there's so much in these
jailhouse calls and I cannot wait for them to be
played in front of a jury. From giving the jailhouse
a one story view on Yelp for their food and
Mattress whining about the lights, it goes on and on,
(03:41):
blaming Jen Soto, Mattie's mother, for her sex abuse and murder.
But now and I find more probative, Shannon, he's giving
more stories about how Maddie was killed. And the reason
I went to Joe Scott Morgan for Pete's saint. He's
a death investigator a thousand K under his belt is
because you hear him on the jailhouse call stating that
(04:06):
when you find them that way that's really going to
stay with you when you find them that way, and
they compare the mom and dad compare Mattie's murder to
an elderly uncle or brother passing away from old age.
Mattie was strangled dead, likely after being raped. What is
(04:30):
this guy thinking?
Speaker 6 (04:31):
Well, and according to him, he knew that right, because
he also says on these calls that he had seen
her autopsy. But what he could not explain, even to
his parents when they tried to ask some questions, was
what happened between eleven PM when she supposedly went upstairs
with him in that bedroom and what happened at dawn
where he now says he found her. So the parents
kind of asked, well, you know what happened. He's like, well,
(04:53):
you know, I don't know. I just came back in
the room. I can't sleep at night, so she started
with me in the room. Then I up and walked
around the house because you know, I can never sleep,
And when I came back, that's how I found her.
Could not explain all of those hours before he now
says he found her body, which is a story, by
the way, that we had never heard. We've heard a
(05:13):
few stories from him. But this was the first time
we heard that too.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Shanna Butler, joining US investigative reporter WFTV. I am beside myself,
not only that this fourteen year old girl died in
her own home with her mom snoring away in the
next room or a few rooms over, but could you
just give everyone a refresher a nutshell, a cliff note
(05:41):
on what was found on Stearns's own cell phone after
he tried to wipe it up all its information.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Oh, horrifying images of abusing Madeline Soto since she was eight, nine,
ten years old. That's the video videos that they found
on his phone. He tried to get rid of him,
He didn't. That was, you know, obviously immediate red flag
(06:09):
for law enforcement. And now to say, you know, I
didn't have anything to do with any of this. She
slept with me, None of this, you know, happened. I
had left, and you know, I guess he must have
forgotten that they had lots and lots of video of
what happens in the evening.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You know, it's amazing to me, and I'm gonna play
in just a moment how his mom totally enabling him,
saying this was forced on you. You were set up and
actually telling him, yeah, you have PTSD because you found
her body. Okay to Phillip Dbay joining me up, Philip,
(06:46):
we're not in court. Okay, you don't have to impress
a high pain client. So don't throw any Latin phrases
at me. Let's not make anything up. Just spinning out
a whole cloth. What kind of a sick freak not
only repeatedly rapes a child and over but films it one.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Who engages in what I call virtual porn. That would
be the defense because they have to prove, according to
a case from the US Supreme Court dating back to
two thousand and two called Ashcroft, that.
Speaker 8 (07:18):
It is a live person.
Speaker 7 (07:20):
You're looking at me like I'm nuts, but that is
a valid First Amendment defense.
Speaker 8 (07:25):
How are they going to lay a foundation?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, Jackie, I need a nitro glistening peel, and I
need it right now. Okay, First Amendment, right to free speech.
Speaker 8 (07:37):
Correct political cultural That.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
May in California, but I guarantee you it's not going
to work in Florida. Did you just say virtual porn
could be a defense.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
I'm sorry, Well, to the sex crimes.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Why did I open Pandora's books and ask him a question.
Speaker 9 (07:58):
Never mind a race erase, Let's go back to the
jail house calls, guys, while Dobay Steve's in his own
juices coming up with a zaney defense of virtual porn.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Let's listen to more of Stephan Stearn's jail house calls. Now.
In this one, he is blaming Jen Soto, Mattie's mom,
And yes, there's a lot to be said about her,
but how can you blame her for Maddie's rape and murder?
But but just listen, you know, Stepan, I can't help
(08:35):
forget the feeling that none.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Of this that was on the phone with a surprise.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
She was awareness that certain feelings towards with Yeah, well
why you She used to joke about it, you know
Ford an electric conspect you better not leave me for
my daughter? Was your older like Ted ask about an
(09:01):
age and most uber meaning comments on me and talk
about me together and jiggle and talk about how nice
I loved it was. It was not an appropriate situation.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Like murder is okay? Wait that just I can hardly
piece this apart. Shannon Butler helped me. I got to
bring in a shrink also to explain what, it's an
electric complex. But I'm not a shrink, neither of you.
You give me the facts. Did you hear what he
just says? The mom says, basically, Jen Soto set you up,
(09:36):
that she was quote aware of Maddie's feelings about me
and the mom this. Deborah sterns, well, then why would
she send her in there to sleep with you?
Speaker 10 (09:48):
Like what?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Like it's it's Jim's fault and I'm certainly not defending
the mother. He says. She used to joke about it,
you know, call it Electra and warn me I could
never leave her for her daughter. What is he talking about, Shannon?
Speaker 6 (10:06):
Well, remember there's all these conversations about how Jena always
thought this was kind of a Woody Allen situation and
that that could happen. So it was very clear that
Jen Soto had some indication that something was just not
right in this relationship, but for whatever reason, that did
not change her. Letting you know, Madeline Soto sleep with him,
(10:31):
sleep with both of them. It is so bizarre to me.
And this is what, at least here in Orlando, all
the viewers get so upset over this. When they hear
stuff like that, they immediately believe that Jen Sodo had
to have known something and that nothing's happened in that case. Right,
she is not charged with anything, And people just can't
(10:54):
understand how a mother would joke about anything like that.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
And even when I hear, we go, why why why?
Shannon Shannon, Shannon Shannon, hold on, you're jumping on the bandwagon.
And yes, I've got huge problems with gen Soto, huge
sending her daughter off to sleep, and this was much
younger than fourteen alone with her living boyfriend. But she
(11:19):
Jen Soto may have been wrong. Well, forget it, she
was wrong. That's a whole other can of worms. Maybe
they haven't charged her because they want her testimony. I
don't know what they're doing. And of course she hasn't
been charged. She's innocent until proven guilty. I'm talking about
the murder. Tom Smith is joining me, former NYP detective.
(11:46):
I'm beside myself. Oh guys, if you want to find
Tom Smith, he is co host of the gold Shield
Show at goldshieldshow dot com. Why I've got a dead
fourteen year old girl body dumped. Video has emerged of
what we believe is Stephan Stern's dumping her limp body
(12:09):
Another bombshell tonight is that dcomp enzymes from dcomp are
found on the front seat of the car where he
Stephan Stearns had Maddie buckled in like they're riding to school.
She decomped onto the front seat. Yeah, explain that, sterns
(12:35):
how are you gonna blame Jens Soto for that? And listen,
Tom Smith, I'm not defending Jen Soto. I'm talking about
the murder and Stephan Stern's blaming her. I mean, it's
always like this, It's always this pointing the finger at
somebody else.
Speaker 11 (12:54):
Right, this is a monster, bottom line, end of discussion,
where he the life of this young girl and just
blames everybody else for his actions. He's very well aware
what he did and how he did it, but tends
to let's deflect to this and that. I mean, he
is a flat out monster. And the other part of this,
like you said, this girl was surrounded by people that
(13:17):
enabled him to do this, and she was the poor
victim in this case. Mom, this guy's parents all having
an understanding of what was going on and let it
happen and inevitably just took her life.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Philip D. Bay A veteran trial lawyer out of LA County.
Don't you just love when you find out what your
client's really thinking on jail house calls. It's not like
they don't know they're being recorded. Every thirty seconds or so,
there's a recording that states you were on a jail line.
Everybody knows what's happening, but yet they still blab Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
I don't know where that whole phenomenon comes from, except
to say that they think that if they change their
original story into multiple iterations of how it could have
gone down, that they're saving their hide. But the truth
is they're creating multiple inconsistencies and points toward guilt. I
tell every client the initial consult don't talk to anybody.
(14:13):
Don't talk on the phone about your case. You have
to just talk about the weather, talk about your favorite holiday,
talk about how much you miss everybody, but don't get
into the facts of your case.
Speaker 8 (14:24):
Otherwise you know what happens.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
I get a terabiede of data on an external hard
drive that I got to listen to from the DA's
office and then have to sit out and lock up
and play for the client. And what does it really
amount to? Additional inculpatory evidence.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Hey, Anna Sonoda, question to you, Anna Sinoda, child's six
abiece and grooming expert, social worker and author of Duck
Duck Groom. Can we just get real for a moment
about what this little girl just just turned fourtean. This
is like thirty six hours out after her thirteenth birthday party,
(15:01):
after her fourteenth birthday party, right, she just turned she's
practically thirteen. What she went through on a nightly basis
with her mother down the hall snoring away. This is a.
Speaker 12 (15:15):
Horrific case, Nancy, and it has been since we started
discussing it over a year ago when she was first missing.
What we have to remember is that cases like Maddie's
are happening across this country every day. And what we
can do and what we can help share with your
audience and your listeners is that predators seek out single parents,
(15:37):
often single mothers, who have multiple vulnerabilities, whether it's as
work schedule, whether it's insecure finances. And Stearns took advantage
at every single turn because he knew that he wanted
access to or Maddie, and unfortunately, tragically she was the
(15:57):
victim through and through in this case. It's my understanding
that Jessica has that Jennifer excuse me.
Speaker 13 (16:05):
Has immunity from within.
Speaker 14 (16:08):
This case, and she is giving as much information to
the police and investigators in order for Stearns to face
the full face of justice here in this case.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Well, I discovered her.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
In the state that you were in after everything with
doing so, Philip debay, why didn't he call nine on one?
If you just found her quote ice cold with blue lips,
why do you think it was a better idea to
(16:44):
dress her up in school clothes and strap her dead
body into his car and drive around like he was
taking her to school and then throw away her laptop
and her backpack and throw her body in a densely
wooded area when he could have just called nine one one, thoughts.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
The only arguments that he and Avail himself to is
that he was trying to protect the mother. That they're
believe it or not, there was still some type of
feelings toward the mother and he didn't want her to
get into trouble, and certainly he did not want to
be accused of doing anything to the child.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
So what do you do. The first thing that comes
to mind is you ditch the evidence. If you will.
Speaker 7 (17:18):
And in this particular case, it happens to be the
remains of his child, and he was in panic mode.
And what do you do in panic mode? You don't
think things through. You do things sort of off the cuff,
like an amateur. And he got caught.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Okay, so hold on, are you actually going along with
this theory filed debay that he found Maddy did no.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
Not in the least. But if I had to defend him,
that would be the argument. Believe me, this man would
not want me on his jury. But I'm just saying
that if I were commissioned by the court to defend him,
I would argue to the jury that he had no
hand in her death, had nothing to do with it,
and point the finger to a third party culprit.
Speaker 8 (17:58):
And who would be the easy dupe in this case,
the mother.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Okay, you would actually say that to a jury, even
though you believe it's a lie.
Speaker 7 (18:05):
There is no room for political correctness in a criminal trial.
If you're going to worry about what the public, what
the court.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I'm not asking what the public thinks, I'm asking you.
Could you argue that to a straight face with do
a jury when you believe in your heart, he did.
Speaker 8 (18:22):
It, of course.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
Look, my beliefs, my personal judgment do not shade or
color how I defend a client. All I need to
know is that my theories are supported by sufficient evidence.
If they are supported, I think it would be legal
malpractice not to present it on the client's behalf and
leave it in the hands of a jury to decide what,
if anything, to do with it. But to just leave it,
(18:45):
I could see an appellated attorney all over it on appeal,
especially if he's condemned for murder.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Guys, we're talking about Stepan Stearn's secret jailhouse calls just
revealed now here. He seems to blame Maddie's murder on
lack of boundaries and poor quote sleeping arrangements.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Listen, you know always had an issue with boundaries. She
never respected any boundaries that I tried to say. You know,
I be gotten argument on more than one occasion about
just sleeping arrangement. So I know what baker, you know,
keep sleep her own room and said you hear this
way for me to wake her up.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
When you hear me, and hold on, Joe Scott Morgan,
help me. Joe Scott Morgan is joining me. Professor Forensics,
Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon,
star of a hit podcast series Body Bags with Joseph
Scott Morgan. It goes on and on. Joe Scott, do
(19:50):
you hear this. I don't know how many child murder
cases you have dealt with, but Stephan Stearns, charged in
Maddie's Soto's murder, says, I beg the mom make her
sleep in her own room, and so I raped her.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
It's beyond bizarre. When you begin to think about this
and over and over and over again, think about it
is from an evidentiary standpoint, this guy has literally literally
documented his steps up to the gallows. When you begin
to think about this, over all of these years, relative
to these horrible images that have been recovered, and then
(20:30):
we have to get to this point where he is
finding her, finding her cold, her lips are blue, these
sorts of things. I'll tell you why her lips are blue,
because if in fact, we are to believe and I
do what the medical examiner said, that this is an
asphyxial death viz. A VI strangulation, that means that she
(20:52):
would have become cyonautic as hands perhaps his, were wrapped
around her throat and squeezed the life out of her.
So her lips are in fact going to turn blue.
It's not just as a result of decompositional changes. You
have this that's going on, and we still don't know
everything relative to the autopsy report. One of the things
(21:13):
that they're thinking about, and they have expressed concern, and
I use that terming quotes, is the highroid bone. There's
something that they're seeing with the hyoid bone and Nancy,
as you well know, generally the only way that a
hyoid bone becomes fractured is by applying direct pressure.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Crime stores with Nancy Grace Scott. Whenever anyone says highoid bone,
I feel it's important that we show where the hyoid
is if you could.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
Yeah, it's the only non articulating bone in the body.
That means it doesn't connect to any other bony structures.
It's sole purpose, Nancy, is to anchor the tongue in
the back of the neck or in the back of
the throat. So it's right in this and it's it's
kind of we describe it in forensicology as being bird shape,
all right, but it's kind of in a horseshoe shape
(22:12):
and it anchors the tongue in the back.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Of the throat like a wishbone. It kind of.
Speaker 5 (22:17):
Does, only without the little stem on it. Okay, but it.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Looks more's not really attached to any bonds. It's not
like the hip bone connected.
Speaker 8 (22:24):
To that's the leg bone.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
It's connected just hanging there.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
Yeah, it is. And it's got two horns, two well,
two major horns and lesser horns that are up here.
And when it's snapped, you can see these little fracture
lines and there'll be focal areas of hemorrhage in there
as well. They're seeing something there, Nancy. This is repeated
over and over again relative to the highwaid bone. They
have concern about it. That means direct pressure would have
(22:50):
had been applied in order to fracture this thing, and
that means coming in with a sea clamp or throttling
this sort of thing in order to choke the life
out of this job.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So, guys, not with what Joe Scott said all correct
time might have from what we've been able to glean
from a word about the autopsy report. What is Stephan
Strange's response he says, no one respected my boundaries, and
then he blames the whole thing because Jim Sooto didn't
(23:25):
give him any privacy. You have got to hear this.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
He didn't have any privacy, you know, just for ourselves.
And she was suggs, Well, maybe you should go to
see United States. Taking it was like a twin bed
and I know six plus seaton. You know, why would
I want to do that because of sleeping, our begging us.
You should have broken up for a long time ago
into the business.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Hell yeah, I think they do just a mess with
the honest with This place is silthy and untanitary and
one little fans factory will blank it s out of
my crazyes all the time.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Well, it's not the risk.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
We're all very happy to you reunited anything lunch since
we've all.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Seen each other.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
And there's no reason that I want to have taken
all of that up for literally no reason hurt or.
Speaker 10 (24:15):
And this, no there is.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
But there's jealousy on the other side too. I mean,
he told you, I hope you don't need You've.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Heard my daughter that tells me that she was thinking about.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
That for a while.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Guys, we are getting a treasure trove of evidence. Just release.
These are secretly recorded jailhouse calls. Now, I don't know
how secret they are, because typically in jailhouse calls, you
hear on the line the caller and the receiver of
the call can hear a recording stating that this is
a call from a CI correctional institute. Everybody knows they're recorded.
(24:50):
I guess they think the prosecutors just won't make the
effort to listen to them. Well, guess what they did.
Joining me now, special guest, Barry Hutchinson, twenty six year
years in LA now owner of Barry and Associates Investigative Services. Barry,
thank you for being with us. Barry. Here, we hear
it goes on and on and on. We hear Stefan
(25:13):
Stearns and mother Deborah Stearns stating Jen Soto had been
thinking about this for a long time. They're basically trying
to blame Jen Soto for her daughter's murder. Did you
hear that?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I think that this whole family is so screwed up?
I guarantee you.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Barry Hutchinson, I don't care. I don't care who has
a history of what we're at the innoceus guilt phase.
This is going to a trial. I don't care who
wet their bed when they were three years old, don't care.
(25:56):
I care who killed this little girl, who ra her
repeatedly and murdered her. Now we hear Stephan Stearn's claiming
that jen Soto, the mother, had been quote thinking about
this for a long time. We see where he's going
with this.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Oh yeah, he's going to try to point the accusatory
finger toward her, you know, to a certain degrade, to
take some of the heat off him. But you know what,
when you've got a dead body on video leaning to
the left and of vehicle that's been seen, and then
you have a cadaver or dog get a hit on
trace chemical for a decomposition, I think there's a couple
of males in your coffin their palth.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Well, you know, debate. You actually have a little bit
of a leg to stand on in that there's a
way for this guy to escape the death penalty. I'll
tell you what I think it is. The jury will
be angry at Jenston, and they may partially blame her
for ignoring the fact right under her and no just
(26:57):
rubbing her nose in it that Stephan Stearns, her live
in boyfriend Mooch, does he even have a job, was
sleeping with her daughter every night. The little girl says
she wanted to go live in the woods. Wonder why
so the jury, right or wrong, may partially blame Jinsoto
(27:18):
for the situation and reason, well, she's not getting convicted,
I sure as hgl and not sending him to the
death penalty.
Speaker 7 (27:29):
I agree with you one hundred percent on that they're
not even assuming that they think mom had a hand
in it by looking the other way with you know,
blissful ignorance and blind fate, whatever.
Speaker 8 (27:41):
You want to call it. He is the one on trial,
not her.
Speaker 7 (27:46):
His only other hope to be spirit of death is
the new law in Florida where they allow for an
eight to four verdict in the penalty phase to execute
if they come back let's say eight to four or
nine to three or some other non unanimous split that
could spare him death.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Guys, there's more of Stefan Stearn's whining, and I haven't
even gotten him whining about his mattress and the food.
So far, he's been blaming gen Soto for Maddie's death,
and we're all angry. The gen Soto allowed a situation
where her daughter slept night after night after night with
her mooch living boyfriend, but to blame her for the
(28:26):
murder itself is a whole another thing, And that sounds
like what he and his mommy and daddy are cooking up.
Remember the mommy and the daddy not charged with anything.
Oh and I haven't even got to them claiming that
he has PTSD because he found the body. I mean, really,
but that said, listen to this.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
I wish I had done the correct thing to begin with.
You know, I wish on downstairs and shaking her away
from a cold nine one all day. Had I wish
she had too, maybe she could have been saved. But
you know, I'm sure true beyond that.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Dave Mac joining me, Crime Stories investigative reporter who has
poured through every one of these recordings word by word,
Dave Mac, can you believe what you're hearing? I wish
I had found her, end quote, shaken her away and
call nine to one one? Yeah, why didn't you? They
are feeding into it. The mommy and the daddy are
(29:29):
basically feeding your baby boy on a silver spoon, a
whole plateful of bs.
Speaker 10 (29:36):
Yep, And I think that we're seeing that played out
where he, for some reason, is trying to snow job
his parents just and believe that they're believing him. And
that's when when his mother says, you know, are they
are they treating you for PTSD after what you've found?
I mean, they're living in a real fantasy world, Nancy.
This is only something that a child, and I mean
(29:57):
a child talks to their parents like this. But we're
dealing with somebody who supposedly an adult grown up man
and two adult grown up parents, and they're acting like
with the six year old who got caught cheating in
first grade on his spelling jets.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Man, you put it better than I could have, Dave Mack, So, Dave,
listen to this. His new story is evolving, and Debay,
prick your ears up on this, because this is where
the defense is going. There's a whole new story about
how Maddie died in China, you know, on the Wizard
of Oz when Dorothy catches the wizard working the machines
(30:35):
and he says, don't look at the man behind the curtain.
I guess they want the jury not to remember all
the rape videos of this little girl on stuff on
Stearn's phone and that hyoid bone being broken or dislodged,
like Joe Scott Morgan was just describing. Yeah, don't look
at that, look at this. Listen to the new theory emerged.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
He was in a different part of the house. Yeah,
she wasn't with you.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Well, she had going to be with me earlier the night,
but I left her alone for quite a while, so
I was pretty she talked her around and you know,
haunting right now, what can I.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Do crime stories with Nancy Grace?
Speaker 10 (31:31):
Were you awake when she went when her came into
the room with you?
Speaker 11 (31:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:37):
And she was fine when she came into your room?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
What what not at night?
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Was that hitting eleven or show?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I'm not sure? Okay, so she was fine.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
So what happened between eleven.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
And whenever you found it?
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Oh that's the really other.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Question, that is the main question. So Dave Matt is
he true? Is he actually going to say she came
into my bedroom because they just don't have boundaries, They
didn't respect my privacy. And then he goes outside to
breathe in the night air, right, and he comes back
and she's dead, and instead of calling nine one one,
(32:13):
and she's cold. By the way, Joe Scott Morgan's gonna
have a field day with the fact that she was
already cold to the touch. He finds her call to
the touch and then decides instead of calling nine one
one that he'll just dress her for school's trapper, body
in the car, drive around, and then dump her body.
Is that right, Dave.
Speaker 10 (32:30):
Mac That is what he's shoveling.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
But I found something fascinating in the way he's.
Speaker 10 (32:35):
Talking to his parents, because he tries to pull them
back into things they remember from him as a child,
like when he talked about how he had left her
alone for a while, and he mentions walking around the
house and he called it haunting around the house as
I like to do. He's trying to relate this so
it's something that they can understand and identify with and
(32:57):
believe him because to anybody else, look his story, You're
going this is total dyes. But his parents, he can
milk these moments of past and president and blur them
together so that they're like, hey, yeah, I want to
believe my son. I want to believe he's telling the truth,
and that's where he gives them those bits that make
(33:17):
no sense to us, but that they can hold on to.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Oh, the devil is in the detailed stern, please keep talking.
Listen to this.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Well, I discovered her in the state she was in
after everything was having done. So I mean, I obviously
I can't get into detail, but no, I was not
aware that she had passed on. And you know, I'm
looking down throughout the night, and I was not in
(33:48):
the room the whole time.
Speaker 9 (33:49):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
So he wasn't aware she was passed on, yet he
found her a call to the touch with her lips blue.
Now the dad realizes the story is not yelling listen,
and it was just not like you.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
You know, you just suddenly feel someone's goes to pass
away from them. You know, it's to discovery. And he
wasn't leave in those same room with you. Well, I mean,
she was in the room that I started him. But
you know, I'm looking towns forout the night, and I
tend to wander around the house, she fiddle around on
my phone and step out trying to feel the nice
(34:23):
cool night air and all that.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
There we go with a nice cool night air again.
Karen stark. Do you hear him? Later on he even
suggests that someone had drugged Maddie, and he clearly indicates
that would be her mother. How much more blame can
he heap on other people? Claiming he was wandering around
(34:47):
the house and while he was wandering, he came back
in and found her bed.
Speaker 13 (34:50):
Let's be perfectly clear. What's going on here is a
cover up and denial. How does he explain the fact
that he took all those photos, the ones that were
on his phone, and try to erase them to make
sure nobody would find them. Why would he get rid
of her possessions. He's just passing along the blame and
(35:11):
his parents are going along with it, I hypothesized, because
it's their son, so they're trying to make sense.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Out of it.
Speaker 13 (35:20):
But all of this trying to shield the fact that
this is a monster, a murderer, that he actually killed
this girl. And he's saying, as an adult that somebody
was forcing him to sleep with her, to be with her,
encouraging it, and he had nothing to do with this
(35:40):
mature man who's become an infant and totally innocent. We
know that that is not true.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
Well, I'm assuming that they are treating you for PTSB
because you found the body, not to mention everything.
Speaker 13 (35:56):
Else that went along with that, treating with.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Her or anything except my flood pressure.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Well, they need to do the PTSD because you're not needing.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Well, you know, I keep telling myself that to maintain
myself chasing questioning God, I have nothing.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Now listen to this. Does anybody know the meaning of narcissist?
Here we hear Stephan Stearns asking his parents to dump
money into an account for a trust fund for him
for him after they die.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Shall prospect her. It's going to be difficult to come by.
I might need some sort of resources to help me
get back up my sheet immediately until I can work
out being the coop situation.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yeah, I don't know what that would be.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
But because maybe we may be we may be gone
by the time you get out.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
I don't know any way, we might be able to
sit up sort of a trust truck or.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Something, a trust fund. Dave, Matt, what did I just you.
Speaker 10 (37:00):
Know, I just heard more and more bs lies between
Sterns trying to sell a bill of goods to his parents.
But something that I'm caught with, Nancy is how a
couple of times during the course of these thirty five
phone calls, he actually sterns mentions hurting his defense by
saying something or giving too many details. And if we're
(37:21):
truly seeking the truth, and he's truly an innocent man
who did nothing wrong, that type of truth is something
you want everybody to hear. So you would be saying
these details for all the world to hear, because you're
an innocent guy. They got the wrong man. You know,
anything would do, but he keeps covering up. He can't
even tell the truth to his parents because he sold
(37:42):
them a bill of goods that they're buying into Our
baby boy would never do this. It's her fault. The
evil girls in his life, the females in his life,
did wrong, and he's the victim.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Yeah, I remember Karen start how he was talking about
how Maddie who's thirteen, and her mother ogled him and
admired him and made a big fuss about him. It's
their fault, I mean narcissism. He wants his parents, who
are retired, to set him up a trust fund of
(38:13):
their money to support him when he gets out and
after they die. That's what's his that's what's on his mind.
Speaker 13 (38:20):
Well, of course, Nancy, there's no guilt there because he
can't feel. But all he's worried about is what's going
to happen in his future. Let them infantilize him and
feel like they have to take care of him. It's
all so typical. I can't think of a single sexual abuser, really,
somebody who rapes children who doesn't wind up saying that
(38:43):
the children wanted it, that it's perfectly normal, it's okay
to do this, and he fixed the bill.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Well, you're right, Karen Start Barry Hutchinson twenty five years
in LA now chief investigator Barry and Associates. Barry he
actually said she started it talking about the little girl.
Maddie started the little station.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
The whole thing just sounds so sick, But you know,
that's a commonality in these abusers. You know, they, like
you said earlier, they always try to circumvent guilt of
their self by saying that somebody else is the one
that initiated the contact, or they're the ones that initiated
the abuse. It's just the way that these pedophiles think,
(39:30):
you know, and it makes me sick, literally, I mean,
child abuse cases like this. I mean, that was the
one thing in all my career and law enforcement that
used to bother me the most whenever you had, you know,
cases like this where you know there's an innocent victim
that's a child, and you feel like you're sitting in
a chair with your hands and your arms tied. You
(39:51):
can't do anything about it as an investigator looking at
this pos sitting across from you at a table, knowing,
damn good and well that you feel like just choking
him to death right there at that point, but you can't.
And yet they have the audacity to sit there and
try to put this whole BS story on you to
make you feel sorry for them, and we have to
(40:13):
kind of play along with it and be a good
actor to try to extricate information from them that's going
to put them away for the rest of their life
where they can't do it to another child.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Scott Morgan, have you seen it all now, Stefan Stearns.
Once I trust fund set up my mommy and daddy.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
Yeah. One of the most glaring things is that when
his dad actually said, well we might be gone, did
you hear that? And then he just continues on with
this through line of all about him. He didn't pause
for a moment and say, well, my god, that's horrible.
Please don't say that that you're going to be gone
(40:50):
or the mom's going to be gone now. And that's
not what it's about. It's about him, you know, moving forward,
and he's going to need money when he gets out,
to get back on his feet. And you know, that
shows you the level of callousness. And he's doing this
to his parents, how much more so, how much more
so Nancy a thirteen year old little girl that he's
(41:12):
been victimizing, allegedly lo these many years. He's that callous.
He's that very callous. He's not genetically connected to her, Nancy.
He just views her as something that is disposable. And
as we found out, she was kind of tossed away
like rubbish, wasn't she?
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Manny Soto was not disposable. Nancy Grace signing off goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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