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Marion Faye Cason


Inmate Name: Marion Faye Cason Charge: First-degree murder, child abuse and neglect Sentence: Life in prison Prison: Lowell Correctional Institution, Florida Marion Faye Cason was born in 1978 in Boaz, Alabama. Her family says she was a happy and adventurous child. Her brother was born when Marion was 11 and the following year the Casons’ moved to Live Oak, Fla. In high school, Marion struggled to belong. She began dating, but at a young age, she started a trend of trusting the wrong men who hurt her. She coped with her internal misery by self-mutilating. She claims she would cut because she didn’t know how to let her feelings out. When she was in the 11th grade, she married her high school boyfriend but the couple split after six months. Then Marion married another high school friend, Jim Miller, and soon after, she discovered she was pregnant. Her daughter, Serinity Nichole Miller, was born on January 30, 2000. Marion loved her newborn daughter, and in 2001, she gave birth to a son, Joshawa. Her happiness was short-lived when, the following year, she learned that her husband was arrested for a lewd and lascivious act upon a child under the age of 16. She began divorce proceedings and now had to support two young children. She went to the department of family services for financial aid and was placed in a subsidized housing project in Live Oak. Craving male attention and support, the single mother befriended Frederick Stegall, a co-worker at her job. Stegall moved in with Cason and her kids. Marion says she felt more secure having a man in the house and that the relationship was strictly platonic, although according to the prosecution, Stegall claimed otherwise. The police say that Marion was warned about Stegalls’ criminal record for child abuse but Marion claims she did not know, and the she never saw him hurt her children. Marion maintains that her daughter never had any bruises and can only recall one injury when her little girl fell out of bed a few days before she died. On January 2, 2003 Marion claims she left the house with Stegall watching the children while she ran errands. When she returned, there was an ambulance that was taking Serinity to the hospital because she had stopped breathing. Serenity was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital and the ER doctor noticed that she had been deceased for approximately 2-3 hours before her arrival at the hospital. The doctors immediately notified the police that her death looked like a classic case of child abuse. Both Marion and Stegall became suspects. The autopsy report confirmed the detectives’ suspicions that child abuse, most likely smothering, was the cause of death. On July 28, 2005, Marion and Stegall were indicted by a grand jury for felony murder in the first degree along with charges of child abuse and neglect. Cason was arrested and placed in jail. Stegall plead guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Marion chose to go trial and her trial began on December 11, 2006. On December 14, the jury returned with its verdict of guilty on all counts. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Although she has lost her appeals, she still maintains she is innocent.