Woman pleads guilty to charges

Published 8:46 am Monday, November 4, 2024

GRAY, Ga. — An Eatonton woman pleaded guilty to concealing the death of her elderly uncle earlier this week in Jones County Superior Court. She was sentenced to a 10-year prison term.

Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III announced the outcome of the case shortly after Dafredia Yvette Stephens pleaded guilty on the eve of standing trial on several criminal charges related to the death of 74-year-old Fredrick Stephens, who lived in Baldwin County.

Fredrick Stephens’ body was discovered wrapped in a blanket along a dirt road on Cheehaw Trail in Jones County in December 2021.

At the time, no one knew the victim’s identity.

It took 18 months for investigators with the Jones County Sheriff’s Office to positively identify the badly decomposed body.

Authorities worked with a Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) artist to sketch a picture of the victim in hopes of someone recognizing the man and calling with a possible name.

“We asked for help in identifying the elderly male, who appeared to have been placed there in an effort to conceal his death,” according to a post made on the Jones County Sheriff’s social media site.

Investigator Capt. Kenny Allen and Investigator Kenny Gleaton with the Jones County Sheriff’s Office indicated they received dozens of tips as to the victim’s identity.

One of the tips authorities received was the key to unraveling the mystery of the man’s identification.

The tip provided a name to authorities.

The name was Fredrick Stephens. The tipster said the man was 74 and lived in Baldwin County.

Allen and Gleaton reached out to Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Detective Maj. Brad King, who assigned Detective Robert “Bob” Butch to assist the Jones County lawmen.

Stephens’ identity was not known until a DNA sample was provided by Stephens’ sister and then tested by a GBI forensics expert who matched it to the DNA of Fredrick Stephens.

The investigation later revealed that Dafredia Stephens was her uncle’s caregiver. It also was learned Dafredia Stephens deprived Fredrick Stephens of care to the extent that her uncle’s health and well-being were jeopardized because she failed to seek medical treatment and services for him.

Investigators also learned that Dafredia Stephens also took care of her uncle’s financial affairs, and she had access to his personal account at Exchange Bank in Milledgeville, Barksdale told The Union-Recorder.

A grand jury in Baldwin County later returned a six-count indictment against Dafredia Stephens.

It was not long before other things came to light about what the victim’s niece had been doing behind the scenes, even after her uncle was deceased.

Those acts involved financial transactions at Exchange Bank in Milledgeville, according to Barksdale, who contended that Assistant District Attorney Essha Kuman in his Jones County office had prepared to present such evidence at Dafredia Stephens’ trial.

“She was ready to tell jurors everything that happened,” Barksdale said, referring to Kuman.

Between Jan. 12, 2022 and June 30, 2023, Dafredia Stephens reportedly stole $5,000 or more with the intent to deprive her uncle of such property, according to court records filed in the Baldwin County Superior Court Clerk’s office.

She also claimed that her uncle was alive when he was actually deceased.

“Ms. Stephens had told other family members and law enforcement different stories of where Mr. Stephens had gone — from him leaving on his own to live with other family to her placing him a retirement home,” authorities said.

Butch, along with Allen and Gleaton also learned that Dafredia Stephens was withdrawing her uncle’s social security funds from the bank.

The prosecutor had planned to introduce evidence that Dafredia Stephens had used her uncle’s money for her own personal use, Barksdale said.

Dafredia Stephens, who is now in the custody of authorities with the Georgia Department of Corrections, was indicted by grand juries in both Baldwin and Jones counties because certain crimes occurred in each of those jurisdictions.