A Worcester County grand jury has indicted an Auburn man on a murder charge nearly 14 years after a toddler suffered devastating injuries in an assault and more than eight years after the child died from complications linked to those injuries.
Steven Stuart, 35, of Auburn was indicted last week on a charge of murder in the death of Jayden Carlson, according to an announcement from Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.’s office.
The case traces back to August 2012, when Jayden was 2 years old.
According to the district attorney’s office, Stuart was convicted in September 2015 of assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injury in connection with the incident. He was sentenced to six to eight years in state prison.
Prosecutors said Jayden suffered severe, life-altering injuries in the assault and continued to experience medical complications in the years that followed.
Five years later, in December 2017, Jayden died as a result of those injuries, according to the announcement.
The new indictment alleges that the child’s death was directly connected to the injuries he sustained in the 2012 assault, leading prosecutors to pursue a murder charge against Stuart.
Stuart was arraigned June 18 in Worcester Superior Court and ordered held without bail, according to the district attorney’s office.
His next court appearance is scheduled for July 20.
The indictment represents the latest development in a case that has stretched across more than a decade, from the original assault conviction to the child’s death and now a murder prosecution stemming from the same injuries.
The Worcester County District Attorney’s Office did not release additional details about the circumstances of the assault or the medical complications that preceded Jayden’s death.
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