OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – The man accused of murdering 13-year-old Madeline Soto is asking a judge to take the death penalty off the table.
Soto was reported missing on Feb. 26, 2024, when she didn’t show up to Hunter’s Creek Middle School. Law enforcement later found her body on March 1 in the woods along Hickory Tree Road near St. Cloud. Authorities believe Soto was sexually molested, strangled and dumped in a wooded area by her mother’s boyfriend, Sterns.
Recommended Videos
The Orange-Osceola state attorney’s office announced last June that it would pursue the death penalty in this case.
Sterns has pleaded not guilty and is currently awaiting trial. However, his attorney recently filed several motions to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. His lawyers argue it’s unconstitutional.
While Soto’s mother and Stephan Sterns initially claimed that Sterns had dropped Soto off at school that morning, investigators announced that their stories didn’t quite line up.
Investigators said Sterns had been caught on surveillance cameras throwing items into a dumpster at a Kissimmee apartment complex on the morning Soto went missing. Soto’s backpack and school-issued laptop were later found in that same dumpster.
At some point during the day, Sterns told Soto’s mother that he had factory reset his phone while trying to update it.
Despite Sterns factory-resetting his phone, detectives said they were able to find child pornography and evidence that Sterns had been sexually abusing Soto as far back as 2022.
News 6 investigator Mike DeForest has pored over the evidence against Stern and learned how law enforcement concluded that he was their suspect. DeForest compiled everything he learned into a six-part series, Justice for Madeline.
All episodes of “Justice for Madeline” can be found here:
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: