A suspect in the gruesome 2019 death of Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney has been denied a motion to throw out the death penalty.
Patrick Stallworth and Derick Brown are charged with capital murder and are set for trial on April 8, 2024.
Attorneys for Stallworth requested the death penalty be thrown out, claiming Alabama’s death penalty statute violates the 8th and 14th Amendments of the Alabama and United States Constitutions.
“This violation includes any and all policies, procedures, any drugs administered, and any and all terms supporting the statute,” the motion stated.
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Alaric O. May denied the motion.
The two suspects have already been sentenced to life in prison on federal kidnapping charges.
McKinney was reported missing from the Tom Brown Housing community on Oct. 12, 2019, where she was for a birthday party. Her body was found 10 days later in a Birmingham landfill.
Birmingham Police concluded the child was taken from the housing community to the Woodside Condominiums in Center Point, where she was drugged, murdered, and thrown in a dumpster.
An autopsy showed the toddler had methamphetamine, Benadryl and Trazodone in her system. She died of asphyxiation.
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