Stephanie Sloop, a Layton woman who failed to protect her 4-year-old son from the severe abuse that killed him, will spend another 40 years in prison before she gets a parole hearing.
After conducting an administrative review of Sloop's case, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Tuesday set a hearing for May 2055. That means Sloop will be 72 before she has a chance for freedom — and the Davis County attorney's office asked the board in a letter sent earlier this year to keep her behind bars for the rest of her life.
Sloop pleaded guilty in November to first-degree felony aggravated murder and second-degree felony obstruction of justice in the death of her son, Ethan Stacy. Second District Judge Thomas Kay immediately sentenced her to 20 years to life in prison for the murder charge and one to 15 years on the obstruction count, with the terms running concurrently.
The mother — along with her husband, Nathan Sloop, who was the boy's stepfather — was accused of engaging in multiple acts of severe abuse between April 29 and May 8, 2010, that led to Ethan Stacy's death. Prosecutors said that while much of the physical abuse came from Nathan Sloop, Stephanie Sloop did not seek medical treatment for Ethan.
The parole board earlier also set a May 2055 hearing for Nathan Sloop, 36.
Sloop pleaded guilty but mentally ill in February 2014 to both aggravated murder, which is a capital offense, and second-degree felony aggravated assault by a prisoner for attacking a Davis County jail officer. A judge sentenced him to 25 years to life in prison for the murder, and one to 15 years for the aggravated assault and ordered that the sentences run concurrently.
Prosecutors said Ethan was burned by scalding bath water, beaten, drugged and dehydrated before his death. The Sloops left him in a locked bedroom while they got married May 6, 2010, and found him dead the next day, according to court documents.
"Instead of getting young Ethan lifesaving medical treatment, Nathan and Stephanie married in an attempt to cover their tracks by a misguided interpretation of the spousal privilege," Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings wrote in the letter to the parole board.
Stephanie Sloop accompanied her husband to a remote area near Powder Mountain Resort in Weber County, where Nathan Sloop burned Ethan's body and used a hammer to disfigure the boy's face and teeth, court documents say. The child was buried in a shallow grave and the couple reported him missing May 10, 2010, which was Mother's Day.
After a 12-hour search, police say, the two confessed to burying the boy and Nathan Sloop led officers to the body the next day.
pamelamanson@sltrib.com
Twitter: PamelaMansonSLC
Murder victim Ethan Stacy, courtesy of the Facebook group "Justice for Ethan."
Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune Stephanie Sloop, charged with aggravated murder in the death of her son, Ethan Stacy enters Judge Thomas Kay's courtroom in Farmington Monday November 17 for a preliminary trial. She ended up pleading guilty to aggravated murder and obstruction of justice which the judge and prosecution accepted. She was sentenced to twenty years to life.
Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune Stephanie Sloop, charged with aggravated murder in the death of her son, Ethan Stacy enters Judge Thomas Kay's courtroom in Farmington Monday November 17 for a preliminary trial. She ended up pleading guilty to aggravated murder and obstruction of justice which the judge and prosecution accepted. She was sentenced to twenty years to life.
