HAYS COUNTY, Texas — A San Marcos man was sentenced to life without parole for the capital murder of his 20-month-old son on Thursday.
Stevie Williams Jr., 27, was sentenced by Bill Henry, the 428th Judicial District Court Judge. His trial began earlier this month.
The medical examiner and a Dell Children’s Hospital pediatrics expert testified at the trial that the infant’s death was caused by someone “squeezing the child’s body, depriving his brain of oxygen,” according to a press release.
William's son, Mason Williams, died on July 4, 2018. Stevie and his wife, Dazrine Chagoya Williams, called 911 and said they found their son not breathing after a nap.
The Kyle Fire Department and EMS attempted to perform life saving measures on Mason but discovered evidence at the scene that the death had occurred hours earlier. The investigation later found that Williams called his grandmother to tell her Mason was dead 12 minutes before calling the police.
Evidence gathered on him and his wife’s phones showed injuries to Mason and the couple’s other child, an 8-month-old baby girl. A few days after the incident in 2018, Williams told Detectives that Mason “was taken by a demon or pure evil,” the press release said.
Physicians at Dell Children’s also discovered serious injuries, with many similarities to Mason’s, on the daughter. The baby was removed from the couple’s care by Child Protective Services following Mason's death.
“Child abuse is always tragic, but never more so than when a child dies at the hands of his own parent,” Wes Mau, Hays County Criminal District Attorney, said in regards to the case in the release.
Dazrine Williams was also charged in the murder at the time of her 2018 arrest.
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