Man denies he ever hit fatally beaten toddler

The man accused of beating a 14-month-old boy to death and tossing his body into an East Side creek told a Franklin County jury Friday that the child’s mother inflicted the fatal injuries.

Kurt A. Flood, 27, said he never hit the toddler, but agreed to help the mother, Dainesha Stevens, get rid of the body “out of the goodness of my heart.”

Flood is charged with murder, felonious assault, endangering children, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse in the death of Cameron Beckford.

Police found the child’s battered, frozen body stuffed in a backpack in the waters of Big Walnut Creek on Dec. 31, 2014.

Jurors heard testimony Thursday from Stevens, 28, who said Flood beat Cameron so severely with a hair brush on Christmas Eve 2014 that her son died the day after Christmas that year at Flood’s East Side house. Stevens, her son and her 6-year-old daughter had moved to Columbus from Maryland that month to escape a difficult relationship with the children’s father. Flood, an old friend, offered to take them in, she said.

Flood sought to refute her testimony, as well as that of his ex-girlfriend Michae Evans, who told jurors that he confessed to her.

Evans testified Friday morning, saying that Flood and Stevens visited her shortly after Christmas. Stevens was in a separate room, Evans said, when Flood told her that he had recently “buried a baby” after trying to beat demons out of the child.

Stevens testified that she and Flood tried to bury her son in the woods near his Kornwal Drive home, but couldn’t because the ground was frozen. Instead, Flood dumped the body, after placing it in the backpack, into a nearby river, she said. She said Flood had become angry with Cameron’s crying and told her the child “had a demon in him” and needed to be punished.

Under questioning from defense attorney Lewis Dye, Flood disputed the testimony of both women. He said Evans misunderstood what he said about who beat Cameron, and that Stevens was the one who began striking the children after he told her that they should be punished.

“I should never have told her to discipline them,” he said. “She took what I said and took it to a whole other level.”

During cross-examination by Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Rausch, Flood continued to deny being the killer, insisting that he got involved after the death to assist his friend.

“At the time, I’m trying to help this young lady,” he said. “It seemed like her luck was just bad. So I was like, ‘Well, the only thing we can do now is get rid of the child.’ It’s a horrifying act. I’m sure everyone is like, ‘Oh, my God.’”

Stevens, who said she never protected Cameron from Flood’s beatings, struck a deal with prosecutors nearly three years ago. She pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter with a recommended sentence of 12 years in exchange for her cooperation.

The defense rested after Flood’s testimony. The jury is expected hear closing arguments and begin deliberating Monday.