Man sentenced to life without parole for infant son’s murder

Staff Reports

SAN MARCOS – On Thursday, October 21, 2021, Stevie Dwayne Williams, Jr., 27, of San Marcos, Texas was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the capital murder of his infant son in 2018. 

The trial evidence showed that on July 4, 2018, Williams and his wife, Dazrine Chagoya Williams, called 911, claiming that their 20-month-old son Mason Williams was discovered not breathing after a nap. Kyle Fire Department and EMS attempted to perform life saving measures on Mason, and soon noticed bruising and evidence that death had occurred hours earlier. Investigators later learned that Williams had called his grandmother and told her the baby was dead twelve minutes before calling 911.

Both the medical examiner and a Dell Children’s Hospital pediatrics expert testified that Mason’s death resulted from squeezing the child’s body, depriving his brain of oxygen. The day following Mason’s death, the Williams’ other child, an 8-month-old baby girl, was removed from their care by Child Protective Services (CPS). Physicians at Dell Children’s Hospital discovered multiple serious injuries on the surviving child, with many similarities in the injuries between Mason and his baby sister. 

During a statement on July 7, 2018, Stevie Williams told Detectives that he and his wife knew for certain what happened to their children. He claimed that Mason was taken by a demon or pure evil. Williams gave multiple statements containing numerous inconsistencies and denying knowledge of his children’s injuries. Phone extractions from both Williams’ and his wife’s phones, however, showed injuries to both children over several months. 

In addition, CPS caseworkers testified to observing similar injuries on Mason in 2017. Mason had been returned to Williams and his wife in March 2018, only after the Williamses had completed required services. 

Williams’ trial began on October 12, 2021. He was convicted of capital murder of a child under 10 years of age after the jury’s guilty verdict Thursday afternoon, October 21, 2021. Bill Henry, the 428th Judicial District Court Judge, sentenced Williams to life in prison without the possibility of parole because the State did not seek the death penalty.

The Hays County Criminal District Attorney, Wes Mau, complimented lead prosecutor Assistant Criminal District Attorney Jamie Liu, assisted at trial by ACDA Jennifer Feldman, along with Kyle Police Department Detectives Joseph Swonke, Pedro Carrasco, and Diane Talamantes for their work in bringing the case to a successful conclusion. Mau said, “Child abuse is always tragic, but never more so than when a child dies at the hands of his own parent.”