Couple charged in ‘Cupcake’ McKinney’s death plead not guilty to kidnapping charge

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A man and woman accused of kidnapping and murdering 3-year-old Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney last year pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal kidnapping charges, officials said.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Alabama, Patrick Devone Stallworth, 39, and his girlfriend, Derick Irisha Brown, 29, face federal kidnapping charges and state capital murder charges in the October 2019 disappearance of McKinney. The child was abducted while at a birthday party in Birmingham’s Tom Brown Village public housing complex, AL.com reported. McKinney’s body was found 10 days later in a dumpster in Jefferson County, WIAT reported.

Stallworth and Brown were charged with capital murder in October.

The couple was arrested the night after McKinney’s disappearance when they were identified after police released store surveillance video, AL.com reported.

Stallworth was charged with multiple counts of possession of child pornography and possession with the intent to disseminate child pornography. The images, found on his cellphone during the search for Cupcake, were not of the missing girl, AL.com reported.

Brown is also charged with felony attempting to elude officers and second-degree assault, according to Jefferson County Jail records. Those charges are in connection with a July 2018 incident in which police allege Brown kidnapped her three children at gunpoint after they were taken from her custody and placed with a relative.

Both Stallworth and Brown face the death penalty if they are convicted of the state charges, AL.com reported.