Man charged with killing toddler is back in jail after his daughter slept over, records show

A former Palmetto man charged with killing his girlfriend's 15-month-old son is back in jail on charges he violated the conditions of his release by having an unsupervised sleepover with his own daughter.

John Stewart is charged with second-degree murder in the December 2015 death of Knowellan Kelly. Stewart is scheduled to go on trial in October.

Knowellan died after suffering seizures and swelling of his brain, likely the result of a violent shaking and having his head slammed onto a bed or other padded furniture. Exams performed at hospitals and an autopsy revealed that the toddler also had seven broken ribs in different healing stages, a spinal fracture, complete disc laceration, bruises on his chest, fluid on the brain and brain bleeding.

The boy had been in Stewart's care while his mother was at work on Dec. 11, 2015, at the time he began to show symptoms.

Stewart was first arrested in January 2016 on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child, but the charge was later upgraded to second-degree murder when charges were formally filed by the state.

In March, Stewart's release was revoked and he was rearrested after his pretrial release officer filed an affidavit claiming he had at least two unsupervised visits with his daughter on or about Feb. 4 including an overnight visit, according to court documents.

Since his initial bond was revoked, Stewart is now being held at the Manatee County jail on a total of $150,000 bond. He will appear in court at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday for a hearing during which his defense will argue for another bond reduction.

Stewart was released in August 2016 after being granted a second bond reduction. He was out on a $50,000 bond and placed into the Pretrial Supervised Release Program. Conditions of his release included that Stewart wear an electronic ankle monitor, follow a curfew of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and that he not leave Manatee, Sarasota or Pinellas counties.

According to a motion filed by Stewart's defense, the Florida Department of Children and Families dismissed their dependency case against Stewart. That does not change the conditions ordered by the judge in the criminal case, however. Stewart's defense attorney, David Little, also claims that the allegations that Stewart violated his pretrial release are based on the statements of a woman referred to as Stewart's ex-girlfriend.

According to the pretrial release officer's affidavit, the woman was supervising Stewart's visits with his daughter and contacted the officer to report the violation. Stewart was living in a St. Petersburg hotel at the time of his March 6 arrest.

This story was originally published May 1, 2018 at 6:17 PM with the headline "Man charged with killing toddler is back in jail after his daughter slept over, records show."