Steven D. Bails (Monroe County Sheriff’s Office) and Kayla Sedoskey (WJBK screenshot)
A 45-year-old man in Michigan will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his ex-girlfriend, shooting her in the head and hiding her body underneath a tarp at an abandoned juvenile detention center.
A jury in Monroe County Circuit Court on Thursday found Steven D. Bails guilty on one count of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the slaying of 23-year-old Kayla Sedoskey, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Jurors deliberated for only about an hour and a half before finding Bails guilty on both counts, according to a report from Toledo, Ohio, CBS affiliate WTOL.
Bails is one of six people charged in connection with the murder of Sedoskey, a mother of one, who was killed in March 2023 at the abandoned Boysville Juvenile Detention Center in Frenchtown Township, which is about 30 miles southwest of Detroit.
Bails’ wife, Narena Bails, and Sierra Bemis, in February, both pleaded no contest — the functional equivalent of a guilty plea — to one count of second-degree murder in connection with Sedoskey’s death. Alexander Feko in January pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with evidence and three counts of accessory to a homicide after the fact, court records show.
All three testified against Bails during his trial, WTOL reported.
The two remaining suspects, Brin Smith and Kaylyn Ramsey, are scheduled to go to trial later this year. They are both charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, records show. They are both being held in lieu of $1 million in the Monroe County Jail.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, troopers with the Michigan State Police on March 3, 2023, responded to a call regarding a dead female, later identified as Sedoskey, whose body had been found in the abandoned juvenile detention center.
“The troopers located Monroe City resident Kayla Sedoskey on the floor inside the building,” the release stated. “Monroe County Ambulance responded to the scene and declared her to be deceased.”
Her body had been bound and wrapped in a tarp, which had then been stuffed under a door. Authorities said she had been shot twice in the head and once in the back.
According to a report from Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK, each suspect knew Sedoskey, and the victim’s biological mother, Barbie Watson, claimed an ex-boyfriend had been harassing her before the killing and made comments about her being dead to him.
Bails, his wife, and Bemis are all scheduled to appear in court to be sentenced on May 23. Feko is currently scheduled to appear for his sentencing hearing on May 13.
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