Stolen& starved
A poor boy died emaciated and beaten, but who was to blame?
Before Navin Jones was born in December 2013, there was red flag after red flag against his parents. By then, Brandon Walker and Stephanie Jones had each racked up a string of arrests and convictions. A reel of police mugshots. When their first son was born in 2010, he was immediately taken into care by the Department of Children and Family Services – the DCFS – until 2012.
Then, little Navin was born with drugs in his system.
Both boys were taken into care, before going to live with Brandon’s mother, Laura Walker.
Laura officially became the youngsters’ legal guardian in 2017.
Their years with their grandmother in Peoria, Illinois, were happy ones.
Navin loved playing outside with his older brother and collecting stuffed dragons.
The boys still visited their parents.
Yet this resulted in multiple calls to DCFS.
After one visit, Stephanie was accused of spanking Navin, then 4, so hard she left bruises.
But in July 2021, Laura had a family emergency.
She had to travel to help her sick mother.
So the boys were left in the care of Stephanie and Brandon.
It was supposed to be a temporary arrangement.
But when Laura returned in August, Brandon and Stephanie refused to return the kids.
Wouldn’t answer her calls.
Begging for help
Laura drove round, where she was met by a defiant Stephanie on the doorstep.
‘She threatened to kill me,’ said Laura.
Police were called and Laura showed them her paperwork proving that she was their legal guardian.
But the police said it was a ‘civil matter’.
Desperate, Laura reported that the boys had been kidnapped, and a DCFS investigation was also opened.
Laura said she’d gone round, looked through the windows.
Saw the place strewn with rubbish.
She begged for help, telling the authorities that Stephanie had a history of violence towards the children.
But Stephanie and Brandon then left the state with the boys.
A worrying game of cat and mouse followed.
In October the DCFS finally tracked them down and spoke to Brandon on the phone in Florida.
He said they wouldn’t be coming back.
The following month the DCFS closed the case.
A fresh investigation was launched the following February, in 2022.
By now the family had returned to Illinois, and an anonymous tip alleged Navin had black eyes from falling down the stairs.
And that his mother would lock him in the basement for being naughty.
The boys weren’t enrolled in school, either.
Growing concerns
A worried caseworker visited Stephanie and Brandon’s home.
She noticed Navin looked thin and sickly.
Sat quietly with his lower half covered by a blanket, he sipped fruit juice and ate popcorn.
But when Navin said he wanted to stay with his parents, the caseworker advised them to take him to the doctor.
Brandon claimed he
couldn’t, as they weren’t his legal guardians.
The caseworker set arrangements in motion for Laura to sign over temporary custody back to Brandon.
The paperwork arrived on 29 March.
But that day, a hysterical Stephanie called the emergency services.
Said she’d found Navin not breathing and tried to revive him in the shower.
When medics arrived, they found poor Navin unresponsive in the bathtub. Being told there was a chance that Navin wouldn’t survive, Stephanie sat on the front step and wept. Brandon ran to the couple’s car and smashed his hands on the bonnet. ‘There’s no f***ing way,’ he screamed.
But Navin, 8, was declared dead at hospital a short while later. He weighed just 2st 4lb. An investigation was immediately launched. Detectives found a sign Stephanie had taped to Navin’s bedroom door with instructions for his older brother, then 12.
Do not give Navin any food or drink. Do not let him out of the room, it read. Navin’s room was completely empty but for one bare, filthy mattress and one toy.
Stinking, his bedroom wardrobe was stained with urine and faeces.
A rope was tied to the door to keep Navin shut inside.
Yet his brother’s room was full of toys and video games, had clean sheets and a fresh carpet.
Navin’s parents were arrested and charged.
And in December 2023, Stephanie Jones, 37, pleaded guilty to firstdegree murder.
But Brandon Walker, 42, pleaded not guilty.
Blame game
At his trial, the prosecution claimed both he and Stephanie withheld food and medical care from Navin.
Kept him locked up alone in his bedroom, or tied up in the basement.
At the end he was badly emaciated, covered in cuts and bruises.
Navin died of a cardiac arrest due to starvation, malnutrition and abuse.
‘He didn’t die of some rare disease, he didn’t get shot, he didn’t get hit by a bus, this guy [Brandon
Walker] right here, and Stephanie Jones murdered him. That’s the word for what happened here,’ prosecutor Terry Muench told the jury.
But the defence argued Brandon wasn’t to blame.
He worked long days at his car repair and towing business, leaving Stephanie in charge.
She had complete control of when Navin ate, and where he went.
Brandon claimed he was rarely present at the boys’ mealtimes, and almost never spent time with them in their rooms.
‘Are you responsible for the actions of your girlfriend? I think not. Are you even responsible for the actions of your spouse? I think not,’ defence lawyer Gary Morris said.
Was Navin’s monstrous mother solely to blame for his harrowing murder?
Or had his father been complicit in starving his youngest son to death?
It was down to the jury to decide…
Guilty or not? Turn to find out