Authorities announced Wednesday the Alabama couple accused of abducting and murdering Kamille McKinney was indicted on federal kidnapping charges.
The Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney’s Office said indictments filed separately in U.S. District Court charged Patrick Stallworth, 40, and Derick Brown, 29, with kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap a minor victim. Federal authorities said the pair could face life imprisonment or death if their actions are found to have caused McKinney’s death.
Stallworth and Brown are still facing state charges — capital murder and kidnapping — in connection with the 3-year-old’s abduction and death last year. The couple has blamed one another for the crime.
McKinney’s body was reportedly discarded in a dumpster at the Woodside Condominiums in Center Point, where Stallworth and Brown lived. Her body was reportedly discovered at the Santek Waste Services Landfill in Gardendale on October 22.
An examination revealed that McKinney died shortly after her abduction from asphyxiation by suffocation. The report stated that the toddler had toxic levels of methamphetamine and Trazodone, an anti-depressant, in her body. Stallworth reportedly had a prescription for Trazodone but claimed Brown was stealing his pills and taking them with meth.
According to court testimony, Stallworth purchased an energy drink and a pill for erectile dysfunction at a local convenience store on the night on McKinney’s abduction.
Brown’s lawyers claimed Stallworth’s DNA was recovered from under McKinney’s fingernails but hers was not. However, a plastic mattress covering seized from the couple’s apartment was said to have blood belonging to Stallworth, Brown, and McKinney.
Stallworth reportedly alleged he entered his apartment and found Brown with McKinney. He said Brown asked him to sexually assault the child but he refused. Conversely, Brown said she witnessed Stallworth sexually assault the toddler.
Prosecutors said the state of McKinney’s body made it impossible to determine whether she suffered any sexual trauma.
Stallworth was also charged with multiple counts of child pornography after investigators reportedly found photos of young girls on his phone. Authorities said the images did not depict McKinney.
Brown has pending kidnapping charges for a 2018 incident involving her three children and the Department of Human Resources. AL.com reported that Brown had lost custody of her three children for putting them in a clothes dryer as punishment.
Brown and Stallworth remain jailed. A preliminary hearing in regard to the state charges is scheduled for December 10.
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[Featured image: Kamille McKinney/Facebook]
