Records allege Utah man beat stepson to death

[May 13, 2010]  SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Newly released police records show a Utah man held in the slaying of his 4-year-old stepson became increasing violent toward the boy in the days leading up to the child's death, then disfigured the boy's face before burying his body in a canyon.

Police unearthed Ethan Stacy's body Tuesday, just 10 days after investigators say a Virginia judge sent the boy to spend the summer with his mother in Layton, about 25 miles north of Salt Lake City.

Investigators said they obtained photographs and video images of the boy's worsening condition from his mother's cell phone, starting shortly after the boy arrived.

The injuries resulted from the stepfather, Nathanael Sloop, "engaging in a systematic and progressively more violent pattern of abuse toward Ethan," Layton police detectives wrote in interview summaries.

The documents say Sloop was angry with the child and "tried everything" to discipline him. They did not say why Sloop, 31, was angry.

The stepfather acknowledged hitting the boy, which caused his face to swell, and leaving him in a locked bedroom May 6 while the couple went to get married in Farmington, about 10 miles away, according to the probable cause statements used to support arrest warrants and detention in jail.

Sloop and the boy's mother, Stephanie Sloop, 27, feared his injuries would alert authorities if they took him along to the courthouse wedding, the documents state.

Stephanie Sloop told police she sought no medical attention for Ethan because she was afraid Nathanael Sloop "would harm her," Detective Brooke Plotnick wrote.

The couple told police they found Ethan dead in his bed Sunday morning, and that Nathanael Sloop buried him later that day.

Stephanie Sloop told investigators she bought two cans of lighter fluid for Nathanael Sloop to burn the body before it was buried. The reports didn't say whether that was actually done.

They did, however, conclude that after the boy died, Nathanael Sloop used a hammer to disfigure his face and teeth "in an effort to defeat or delay identification."

Prosecutors are awaiting autopsy results but expect to file charges against the couple Friday. Nathanael Sloop was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder. He and the mother face additional charges of desecration of a corpse, along with felony child abuse and obstruction of justice, police said.

The Sloops are being held at the Davis County jail.

Attorney Richard Gallegos, who has represented Nathanael Sloop in previous criminal cases, did not return a message Wednesday. It was unknown if Stephanie Sloop had an attorney.

No one answered a phone at the Sloops' apartment, and a message wasn't returned.

Stephanie Sloop initially told officers that Ethan wandered away from their apartment complex late Monday. But that was just a ruse aimed at covering the couple's tracks, Lt. Garret Atkin said.

Police began searching the Sloops' apartment complex and neighborhood. But by Tuesday afternoon, the couple had revealed the location of the boy's body, police said. The search then moved to Wolf Canyon, which borders the Powder Mountain ski resort, about 40 miles northeast of Salt Lake City.

Ethan's biological father, Joe G. Stacy of Tazewell, Va., said police filled him in on details of the slaying Wednesday.

"I can't talk right now," he told The Associated Press. "I just got the horrible news, talking to prosecutors."

A relative said Ethan had no desire to spend the summer with his mother.

"Ethan did not want to go. Ethan did not want to even talk to (his mother) on the phone. She'd call and he'd say, 'I don't want to talk to her,'" Freida Stacy, Joe G. Stacy's stepmother, told the Deseret News of Salt Lake City.

Utah State Courts records show that between 2000 and 2003, Nathanael Sloop had several convictions, including for criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and drug possession. No criminal history was found for Stephanie Sloop.

[Associated Press; By PAUL FOY and JENNIFER DOBNER]

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