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FARMINGTON — A woman charged with murder in connection with the death of her 4-year-old son will have a hearing on the evidence against her in December.
Second District Judge Glen Dawson said Tuesday that he wanted to see the case against Stephanie Sloop, 30, go to a preliminary hearing. State prosecutors agreed and defense attorney Mary Corporon requested that it take place in November or December to allow her time to prepare.
The judge set the hearing, spanning four days, to begin Dec. 10.
Sloop's son, Ethan Stacy, died in 2010, just days after he arrived in Utah from Virginia to spend the summer with his biological mother and her then-fiancé, Nathan Sloop. The couple were married days later on May 6 and Nathan Sloop told police that they didn't take the boy to the wedding ceremony because they didn't want anyone else to notice the boy's injuries. Two days later, the boy was dead.
Court documents list "severe abuse" as the cause of death and investigators say Ethan was abused between April 29 and May 8.
Prosecutors have said the child was scalded, beaten, overmedicated and not given the medical care that he needed. But Nathan Sloop's defense attorneys have countered that Ethan didn't die of severe abuse, but of dehydration from overmedication.
Stephanie Sloop has been charged with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony; inflicting a serious injury on a child and obstructing justice, second-degree felonies; and abuse or desecration of a human body, third-degree felony.
Nathan Sloop last week was ordered to stand trial on the charges against him, which are almost identical to those Stephanie Sloop is facing. He has an arraignment hearing scheduled for Aug. 13.
Contributing: Haley Smith
