JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A jury returned a split verdict Friday against a Jacksonville woman on trial for murder in the beating death of her 4-year-old stepdaughter, convicting the woman of manslaughter but not murder.
Jurors took nearly three hours to find Shavonn Norfleet not guilty of first-degree murder but guilty of aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse in the 2015 death of 4-year-old Jada Norfleet.
Norfleet and her husband were accused of inflicting the injuries that sent the 4-year-old girl to Wolfson Children's Hospital last year. The child died of her injuries on Jan. 30, 2015.
Jurors took 20 minutes to convict John Norfleet of first-degree murder on Wednesday in his daughter's death.
Shavonn Norfleet took the stand on Friday in her own defense.
She told the defense they both believed in disciplining the girls, but she never did so “out of wrath.” She admitted to using “rods, belts and brushes” to spank the girls, but she said she never hurt them. When asked if it was possible to spank the girls without bruising or hurting them, she answered “absolutely."
Shavonn said she did notice the bruising on Jada’s legs after “spanking” her but said the bruising did not seem severe. She said she was also told that Jada was “walking funny on Friday morning," the day after she was “punished," but Shavonn said she didn’t notice anything.
Shavonn described the morning of the day Jada died as “a normal morning." When Jada came downstairs that morning, she described Jada as “angry” and “walking funny -- she seemed in pain from her spanking." She said she used alcohol to help with swelling and bruising on the legs. Besides being sore, Shavonn said Jada “seemed normal” that day. She said she did not think anything was seriously wrong with Jada that day because she was “very energetic."
At some point that day, Shavonn said her husband went upstairs to spank Jada for throwing her food away. He later asked Shavonn to bring him a Gatorade, she said when she did she noticed he and Jada both looked tired. Soon after, she described John seeming frantic and told her to call a family friend.
The family friend suggested she call 911, according to Shavonn.
The first time anyone in the courtroom saw emotion from Shavonn followed a question from the defense: “How did you feel about Jada?” Shavonn took a long pause after the question, she started to cry, then answered, “I loved her like my own daughter.”
When the state started to question Shavonn, their questions focused primarily on Jada’s weight, asking why she weighed 25 pounds at four years old. The state also asked why disciplining a four year old with a rod would be constructive.
Shavonn said it was John’s decision to go to Home Depot and buy the rod, however she agreed with the state that it was “the wife’s role to discipline the children”.
The state asked Shavonn which math problem Jada would not answer to deserve her spanking on January 29th, the day before she died, Shavonn could not recall the exact reason for the discipline that morning, but said “Her spanking was very rightly and there were no bruising when I spanked her.”
Shavonn said she treated Jada’s bruises Friday morning, the day after she was disciplined for not finishing a math problem, but she adds, “there was nothing alarming or disturbing” that would cause her concern that day.
Shavonn said she recalls feeling sore from bruises as a child when she was disciplined with spanking, but she said she didn’t find it alarming, but she did recall being in pain.
When describing the spanking Jada “deserved” the night she died for being “disobedient,” Shavonn said she turned up the volume of the television because Jada was crying and she didn’t want the baby to wake up. The state argued the volume was turned up because they lived in apartments they shared a wall with their neighbor, but Shavonn insisted it was for the baby.
Stay with First Coast News for updates in this developing story.
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