Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney, the three-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered in Birmingham, Alabama, was also drugged. An autopsy has found the girl had methamphetamine and Trazodone in the girl’s remains.
A preliminary hearing in the case was held Tuesday in a Jefferson County courtroom for Patrick Devone Stallworth, 39, one of two suspects charged in the capital murder case. The other suspect charged is Stallworth’s girlfriend, 29-year-old Derick Irisha Brown. Brown’s preliminary hearing will take place on Friday, according to AL.com.
READ MORE: Officials release 3-year-old Kamille ‘Cupcake’ McKinney/s cause of death
Stallworth’s defense attorneys, Derrick Collins and Roderick Walls, said Brown was solely responsible for Kamille’s abduction and murder and said Stallworth initially lied to detectives because he was trying to protect her, reported AL.com.
On the day she was abducted, Kamille attended a birthday party and was last seen by a 10-year-old boy who told detectives that the young girl got into a vehicle with Stallworth and Brown. “She was crying,” Homicide Detective Jonathan Ross testified the boy told him, according to AL.com.
Ross testified that Brown led police to Kamille’s body inside of a dumpster at Parkway Villas. The dumpster was examined by FBI agents and Kamille’s remains were discovered on Oct. 22. The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office performed the autopsy, which found Kamille died from asphyxiation by suffocation. The autopsy also found toxic levels of methamphetamine and Trazodone inside the young girl’s body, AL.com reported.
Ross detailed the chain of events leading to McKinney’s murder to Circuit Judge Clyde Jones, including information that Stallworth had purchased nearly $20 in candy from a Shell station before he was reportedly seen talking to some children in a housing development.
Ross said that Stallworth’s phone records show he was at Tom Brown Village at the time of Kamille’s abduction, and that he also had a prescription for Trazodone. Ross said Stallworth also stopped by a convenience store close to his house on the same night to buy a pill for erectile dysfunction and an energy drink.
While at the housing development, Stallworth and Brown reportedly started chatting with two preteen girls who had just left cheerleading practice. The couple was sitting in a blue SUV, Ross told the court during Stallworth’s preliminary hearing. One of those girls told police that Stallworth said that he was “looking for a girl that looks like you,” before offering to give them candy. The 11-year-old said the woman in the SUV was “dark-skinned” and “chunky.”
The girls sensed something wasn’t right and left. Security video captures the incident, however, it wasn’t close enough to get a picture of the suspects.
Other kids also told police a man driving a blue SUV was handing out candy in the community.
READ MORE: Body of missing Alabama girl, Kamille ‘Cupcake’ McKinney, found; 2 being charged
Judge Jones determined there was enough probable cause against Stallworth to proceed in sending the capital murder case to a grand jury for possible indictment. If Stallworth and Brown are ultimately convicted of capital murder, they face the death penalty.
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