Breaking Update on Friday @ 4:02 p.m.:
Patrick Stallworth was convicted of federal kidnapping charges in the 2019 abduction of Kamille McKinney.
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A former Alabama jail nurse testified on Thursday that she overheard an accused kidnapper talk about possibly raping a 3-year-old girl before his girlfriend killed her.
Former Pickens County Jail nurse Phyllis Cox said she also heard Patrick Stallworth, 42, tell assistant jail nurse Toni Crowell that he did not kill Kamille McKinney. Crowell testified that she did not recall the conversation, but prosecutors grilled her about prior conversations — one of which entailed Stallworth expressing his love to her, according to AL.com.
During Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors played jail phone calls in which Stallworth is reportedly heard telling Stallworth, “I dream about you” and singing a song to her. Crowell claimed Stallworth was singing a church song, and that they mostly talked about church.
Crowell also told the court that she befriended Stallworth because he was treated badly in jail. In one of the calls, Stallworth is reportedly heard telling Crowell “1-4-3,” a code for “I love you.”
“Care and love to me is the same thing,” Crowell testified, according to AL.com.
Stallworth and his girlfriend, Derick Brown, are accused of abducting McKinney from a Birmingham housing community in October 2019. Witnesses claimed a man who was handing out candy put the barefoot toddler in his car and drove off.
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 10 days after her kidnapping.
McKinney is believed to have been killed shortly after her abduction. Forensic pathologist Daniel Dye testified this week that there was no evidence of her being sexually abused before her death.
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.
According to reports, Stallworth stated that 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.
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 was previously charged with kidnapping 2018 incident involving her three children and the Department of Human Resources. Brown had lost custody of her three children for allegedly putting them in a clothes dryer as punishment.
Stallworth is currently standing trial on federal kidnapping charges. He and Brown are also charged in state court with capital murder in connection with McKinney’s death.
Brown’s federal trial is expected to begin on November 14. Brown and Stallworth’s capital murder trials have not been scheduled.
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[Featured image: Kamille McKinney/Facebook]
