In a release<\/a>, deputies said the mother \u2014 Taylor Schaefer, 30 \u2014 entered an open plea to her many charges in the case, which stems all the way back to 2023.<\/p>\nNow, she\u2019s been sentenced to 60 years in prison on charges including aggravated child abuse, kidnapping, and tampering with a witness in a life felony proceeding.<\/p>\n
Back in 2023, investigators said they learned there was a \u201cbrutal pattern\u201d of abuse, with detectives finding several recordings of the 5-year-old being beaten by Schaefer\u2019s boyfriend, Shawn Stone.<\/p>\n
[BELOW: Mother arrested on multiple child abuse charges in Volusia County]<\/p>\n
\u201cSchaefer was present in the house during the abuse,\u201d the release reads. \u201cOn several occasions, the boy was visibly injured and limping in her presence, but received no care or medical attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, deputies said the young boy wasn\u2019t just beaten, but repeatedly left with his hands bound behind his back for hours at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe victim was also tied up, placed in a dog cage and often punished via deprivation of food,\u201d the release continues.<\/p>\n
Taylor Schaefer (Copyright 2023 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Another child, 9, in the home was also abused by being forced to drink boiling water or sprayed with boiling water and was beaten with other household objects, according to the sheriff\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
There was even a third child, 7, in the home who did not receive proper care for a serious medical condition, officials said.<\/p>\n
According to the sheriff\u2019s office, Schaefer called law enforcement in May 2023 about a bad \u201cgut feeling\u201d she had on the way to an appointment about her live-in boyfriend, Shawn Stone, 32, who was at home with the 5-year-old and another child the couple shared together.<\/p>\n
She said she checked video on her phone with a view of the living room and saw Stone standing over her son, who was lying in his bed, and punching the boy in the head, according to deputies.<\/p>\n
[BELOW: Mother of boy beaten with mop in Volusia County arrested on dozens of charges]<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have security footage from inside of the house because the little guy, who was being fed just oatmeal and being starved, was trying to get into the refrigerator, and they were trying to catch him,\u201d Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said.<\/p>\n
Deputies said she saw that her son was able to get off the bed but as soon as he did, Stone began to kick him. According to sheriff\u2019s officials, she could hear her son begging for Stone to stop, and after a few moments, he did, but then grabbed a mop and began striking the boy again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see in (the video) where the little guy has a leg injury, he can\u2019t stand up straight, you can see the burn mark on his back, and this scumbag kicks him in the leg, knocks him to the ground, makes him stand up, and then punches him to the face,\u201d Chitwood said.<\/p>\n
[BELOW: Footage shows confrontation between Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood and fraud suspect]<\/p>\n
Schaefer told deputies she saw Stone strike her son so hard and often that the head of the mop broke off, investigators said.<\/p>\n
Medical professionals determined the child had 46 visible injuries and other internal injuries, including a fractured skull, fractured legs and burn marks.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou watch it, and it churns your stomach to think, \u2018How could you do this?\u2019\u201d Chitwood said. \u201cI\u2019m speechless, 36 years in policing and I\u2019m speechless when I watch those videos… Detectives told me this is going to be one of the worst things we\u2019ve ever seen because those cameras captured everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chitwood went on to say \u201cit\u2019s too good of an ending for (Schaefer and Stone) to rot in their jail cells,\u201d adding the suspects \u201cstole those kids\u2019 futures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 After her son\u2019s abuse at the hands of her boyfriend, one Central Florida mother…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7071,265,2651,28,30,29,2261],"class_list":["post-185372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-children","tag-crime","tag-deland","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}