Charleston man sentenced to life for murdering baby

CHARLESTON, Mo. — A Charleston man was sentenced on Friday to life in prison after he was convicted in April of the 2018 child abuse and murder of a baby in Mississippi County.

Mitchell Brumfield, 39, of Charleston, who was convicted of the 2018 murder of an 8-month-old female, was sentenced to 15 years in the Department of Corrections on the charge of child abuse resulting in death and life in prison for the second-degree murder charge, according to the Mississippi County Circuit Clerk’s Office. The sentences are to run consecutively with each other. He appeared Friday before Judge Robert Zachary Horack in Mississippi County.

Brumfield was found guilty by a jury on April 30 following a three-day trial in Mississippi County.

According to the probable cause affidavit provided by Darren Cann, prosecuting attorney for Mississippi County, at 3:52 p.m. March 29, 2018, officers with Charleston Department of Public Safety were dispatched to a residence in the 400 block of Wallhausen Street in Charleston where an 8-month-old infant was unresponsive on the couch and transferred to a local hospital. Medical professionals determined the child’s injuries were traumatic and she was transferred to a St. Louis hospital where she died on March 30, 2018. 

During interviews with police on March 30, 2018, Brumfield and his girlfriend, Kadegra Wallace, who is the mother of the female infant, said a 2-year-old male struck the baby in the head with a plastic car the morning of March 29. The officer said there were no visible injuries to the baby’s scalp. The officer said he also learned the baby had a male twin, who had sustained a broken leg and was treated at a local medical provider on March 30. 

Wallace told police she woke up the morning of March 29 and fed the twin babies and placed them in their carseats in their bedroom. She went back to sleep in her bed and later woke up and went into the babies’ bedroom. She told police she kissed both twins and noticed the female was not breathing. Wallace said she and Brumfield were the only adults at the resident the day of the incident. 

On March 31, 2018, Dr. Russell D. Deidiker conducted an autopsy of the female infant. In his confusion, the doctor said the close head injuries were non-accidental in origin and the manner of death was ruled homicide. Brumfield and Wallace were ultimately charged with murder and abuse of the child.

Wallace will stand trial at a later date.