- Warning: Graphic Content
A mother in Florida received a hefty sentence after standing by idly while watching her boyfriend violently beat and abuse her five-year-old son.
Taylor Schaefer, 30, was handed a 60-year prison sentence on Friday after she entered no contest pleas to 25 felony charges for child abuse and neglect.
The mother of three admitted to watching her son be routinely attacked by her 35-year-old live-in boyfriend, Shawn Stone, according to a release from the Office of the State Attorney RJ Larizza.
Schaefer, a former employee at the child welfare organization Community Partnership for Children, was found to have watched as Stone beat the child on surveillance footage and ignored blatant indicators of their severe injuries.
Stone was seen on surveillance attacking the young boy with a mop over a bedwetting accident, according to investigators.
He left the boy so badly injured that he sustained a fractured skull, the release from the state attorney stated.
Child Protective Services discovered around 46 injuries on the boy during a medical examination.
‘On several occasions the boy was visibly injured and limping in [Schaefer’s] presence, but received no care or medical attention,’ the Volusia Sheriff’s Office said in a release.
Taylor Schaefer, 30, was handed a 60-year sentence in prison on Friday after she entered no contest pleas to 25 felony charges for child abuse and neglect
Schaefer’s boyfriend, Shawn Stone, beat her five-year-old son with a mop over a bedwetting accident, investigators say
Video footage saw the boy had been repeatedly left with his hands bound behind his back for ‘hours at a time,’ according to the sheriff’s office.
In one instance, the boy was left with his hands tied from around 6.40pm to 2pm the next day, according to the sheriff’s office.
‘The victim was also tied up, placed in a dog cage and often punished via deprivation of food.’
Stone was arrested in 2023, as investigators uncovered that all three of Schaefer’s children suffered neglect and abuse.
Another child was reportedly sprayed with boiling water, forced to drink it and beaten with household objects, according to the sheriff’s office.
A third child in the home did not receive proper nutrition or care for a serious medical condition, the release stated.
‘Other footage recorded during beatings indicated that the sounds of the abuse could be heard throughout the house,’ the sheriff’s office said.
Schaefer was found to have knowledge of the abuse Stone had been inflicting on her children and ‘did not intervene or protect them,’ surveillance video and an interview with the oldest child corroborated, Larizza said in the release.
Schaefer was found to have knowledge of the abuse Stone inflicted on her three children and ‘did not intervene or protect them,’ according to State Attorney RJ Larizza
Stone faces around 24 charges, including aggravated child abuse and other charges related to repeated abuse and neglect. His case is ongoing
Text messages between Stone and Schaefer also revealed that the children’s mother participated in the neglect and abuse, according to the office of the state attorney.
‘A mother’s sacred duty is to love and protect her children – not to viciously beat, torture and demean them,’ Larizza said.
‘It is a brutal reality that some mothers commit shamefully violent and cruel acts upon their children. God bless and keep these children as they navigate through life after suffering such atrocities.’
Schaefer was found guilty on all 25 charges, including aggravated child abuse, kidnapping and tampering with a witness in a crime punishable by life or a first-or-second-degree felony.
She was also sentenced to a concurrent 54 years in prison for failing to report child abuse, abandonment and neglect.
The case against Stone remains ongoing as he is held at the Volusia County Branch Jail.
Stone faces around 24 charges, including aggravated child abuse and other charges related to repeated abuse and neglect.