Background: The 300 block of George Street in Memphis, Tennessee (Google Maps). Inset: Antonio Stevison (Shelby County Sheriff”s Office).
A man in Tennessee kidnapped a woman and her baby, beat her, and held them in a home in Memphis until she paid a ransom, authorities allege.
Antonio Stevison, 38, faces several charges, including two counts of aggravated kidnapping; child abuse, neglect, or endangerment; and robbery, all felonies, according to Shelby County court records. He also has been charged with the misdemeanor charge of domestic assault with bodily harm.
The case began on Sunday, July 13, when the alleged victim was at home with her child. Stevison, her “sexual partner,” showed up at her home and “bust out a window,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit. When she walked outside, Stevison “told her to grab her son and get in the car.”
They went to a location police believe was on the 300 block of George Street in Southwest Memphis – the 24-year-old woman allegedly being driven by a man named “Jet” and Stevison driving her vehicle. When they got there, Stevison “started beating” the woman “all over her body with his fists,” the court document states.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
The alleged abuse is said to have continued. Stevison “forced” the woman “to take pornographic photos and videos and forced her to make videos saying that she wasn’t being held against her will,” the affidavit states. He also is said to have made her “whoop” her 1-year-old son with a belt and when she didn’t do it “hard enough,” he started hitting her with a broom.
The woman reportedly “begged” Stevison to let her and her child go, “but Antonio refused.” He “made them stay” in the locked house overnight, and “every time she tried to escape, Antonio would beat her,” the woman told police. As the mother and son were being held, “both Jet and Antonio were snorting cocaine,” the affidavit adds.
In the early hours of the following morning, Stevison is said to have made the woman put her son “outside on the porch,” and he was allegedly left there alone for three or four hours. She again pleaded for Stevison to let them go and offered to give him $7,500 in cash if he did so.
He agreed, and “Jet” drove her to a nearby bank while Stevison held onto the child, per the affidavit. Once she took out $6,800 in cash and gave it to Stevison, she and her son were let go.
Memphis Police Department officers were approached by the mother at about 5 p.m. that Monday, July 14. She said that she and her son “had just been released.” Some time later, Stevison was pulled over on a traffic stop and arrested.
More from Law&Crime: ‘Maybe I hit him too hard’: Babysitter who ‘threw’ toddler into wall, blamed injuries on him ‘eating soap’ faces life in prison
The man “denied being with any women over the weekend” and said his vehicle was inoperable, the affidavit states, though he allegedly admitted to “visiting his uncle” who lived around George Street.
The mother and her son were checked for injuries. She “had an abrasion under her chin” and “bruises on the right arm and right leg,” according to the court document, while the boy had “two small abrasion(s) near his hair line” and “some redness in between his thighs.” The mother is said to have positively identified Stevison “as the person responsible” for holding them “against their will.”
Stevison is due next in court on Aug. 13. He is being held on $100,000 bail and has an extensive criminal history that includes 25 instances of failing to appear in court, a bail screening form states.
It is unclear whether the man referred to in the affidavit as “Jet” was or is wanted by police. Law&Crime reached out to the Memphis Police Department for more information.
