Robert Sparrow III’s Grave
Jason Demetrius Stephens
Facts of the Crime:
Jason Demetrius Stephens was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of three-year-old Robert Sparrow III. On June 2, 1997, Jason Stephens and several accomplices broke into the home of Robert Sparrow, Jr. Stephens refused to name his accomplices. Horace Cummings, however, turned himself into authorities as one of the accomplices. The police never apprehended the other accomplices.
According to Stephens, he went with his accomplices, including Horace Cummings, to the Sparrow home to buy drugs, and he claimed that they did not know about his plans to commit the robbery. According to testimony at trial, Stephens came into the home carrying a 9-mm firearm. Stephens was standing next to three-year-old Robert Sparrow III and Consuelo Brown, Sparrow’s mother. Brown confronted Stephens, who hit her in the face with the firearm. Stephens then shot a bullet into the floor to prove that the firearm was loaded and demanded money and marijuana. Stephens told Robert Sparrow Jr. to give him the keys to the blue car parked near the house, but Sparrow did not have the car keys. Stephens told all of the hostages, who included Robert Sparrow III, Robert Sparrow Jr., Consuelo Brown, Kahari Brown, Tracey Williams, Derrick Hosea Dixon and Tammy Cobb, to lie on the ground, and an unknown man held the hostages at gunpoint while Stephens looked around the home for a room in which to put the hostages. Stephens chose the bathroom and made the hostages crawl to the bathroom.
David Cobb, Robert Sparrow Jr.’s half brother and his friend, Roderick Gardener, arrived at the home during the commission of the robbery and were forced into the bathroom with the other hostages. Items taken from the men included the keys to Gardener’s mother’s green Kia. Stephens showed the hostages his ID and said that he was taking Robert Sparrow III with him for ‘insurance.’ Stephens said that he would leave Robert Sparrow III somewhere if he was not followed. Stephens left the Sparrow residence with Robert Sparrow III in the green Kia because his accomplices would not let him in the black car, which they had driven to the Sparrow residence, with the child.
Both the black and green cars left, and they pulled over less than one mile away and left Robert Sparrow III in the car in a sunny area around 2:30 in the afternoon. The car was not found until after 9 o’clock that night. Three-year-old Robert Sparrow III was found dead in the green Kia. Stephens claimed that the Sparrow was alive when he left him in the car. A doctor presented by the defense testified that Robert Sparrow III died from hyperthermia due to being in the hot car for the extended period of time. In contrast, the medical examiner testified that Sparrow died from asphyxiation, which included either strangulation or suffocation; however, the medical examiner could not rule out hyperthermia.
Stephens was sentenced to death in Duval County on April 7, 1998.
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