ST. GEORGE —A Beaver man has been charged with aggravated murder in the death of his newborn infant nine months after the arrest of the child’s mother was accused of murdering their 23-day-old infant son.
On Friday, 27-year-old Joshua Lee Downey was formally charged with first-degree felony aggravated murder and second-degree felony aggravated child abuse. The mother of the infant, 33-year-old Tawna Steed, was charged with aggravated murder on Oct. 20, 2021.
The incident on Sept. 19, 2021
The case was filed following an investigation into an incident that began with a 911 call to emergency dispatch in September of last year reporting that a 23-day-old infant was not breathing and that CPR was in progress.
According to the report, officers and emergency medical personnel were dispatched to an apartment complex on North Main in Beaver and transported the unresponsive infant to Beaver Valley Hospital where the child was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
The remains were sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy to determine the cause of death and detectives were called in to investigate.
Interview with the infant’s mother
According to court records, Steed reportedly told police during an interview it was only she and her fiance, Downey, who were taking care of the infant, other than a 10-minute shopping trip when the baby was in the care of another.
She also denied ever hurting her child and told investigators the child’s father, Downey, had a great relationship with their son and would never hurt or kill the infant.
The detective also noted that during the interview, Steed never cried nor did she appear upset. The defendant then asked for an attorney and all questioning ceased, the probable cause statement said.
The autopsy
During the autopsy that was performed on the infant on Oct. 12, the pathologist found multiple rib fractures and at least two separate brain hemorrhages, “which would have occurred by someone shaking the infant or some other type of blunt force trauma causing death,” the report states.
According to the pathologist, the infant’s death was ruled a homicide.
Initial interview with infant’s father
During an initial interview with the baby’s father, Downey was visibly upset as he reportedly denied ever witnessing the child’s mother or anyone hurting the child, but as the questioning continued, the defendant later recounted that statement. He went on to tell investigators that four days prior to the baby passing away, as he entered the apartment, he saw Steed shaking the baby in the kitchen.
Downey went on to describe Steed “being mid-shake with her back towards the apartment‘s door,” he said, adding he was unsure of how hard she was shaking the infant.
When he spoke up, Downey said, Steed was still shaking the infant and did not initially answer him, but shortly thereafter, he said, she told him the infant was crying and that she “was getting over the infant‘s crying – that she was done with it,” investigators noted in the report.
Detectives also noted that Downey said “he had literally looked at her and saw her shaking the infant.”
The defendant went on to describe the way in which he saw Steed holding the infant, which was around the baby’s diaphragm, adding he felt as though his fiance was tense and “probably” holding the baby too hard, which is when Downey said he took the crying infant from Steed.
Downey also described another incident that reportedly took place three days later, when he heard the baby crying as he worked downstairs from the apartment. After a few minutes, he said, the infant continued to cry. He ran up the stairs to see what was going on, and just as he entered the apartment, the crying suddenly stopped.
Once inside, Downey said he could see Steed sitting on the foot of the bed facing away from him and shaking the infant, which is when he started to lose his temper as he grabbed the baby away from her, he said.
Downey also said the infant appeared to have shallow breathing and failed to respond to him after taking the child away from the mother, and then he took the baby outside to get some fresh air.
Once the breathing improved, he said, he took his infant son to his mother’s house for a while. The baby died the following day shortly after arriving at the hospital.
Follow-up interview with Downey
On June 29, Downey was interviewed for a second time at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office, which is when deputies asked the defendant if Steed would testify that he had anything to do with the baby’s death, should the case go to trial.
The defendant answered by saying it was he who was “always the one taking care of the infant” when he wasn’t outside working on the car and he also denied ever shaking the baby. He told investigators the only thing he ever did was “he rocked the infant in his arms.”
Following the birth, the defendant described the infant as perfectly happy at the hospital, but after a week or so of being at home, he said, the child’s mother started giving the baby an over-the-counter infant pain reliever, medication that Steed would continue giving the newborn 2-3 times a day, nearly every day, Downey said.
When investigators asked Downey why he had never gotten help for his son after witnessing the two incidents, he said he “was scared” and said he wasn’t sure what was going on with the child. He also said he was also unsure whether his efforts would result in his completely losing custody of his infant son to the state.
He told detectives that when Steed had told him they had missed one of the baby’s doctor’s appointments, she said she would reschedule it. Following the two incidents, however, he said he told Steed to cancel the most recent appointment because “he was afraid they would take the infant away from him,” detectives noted.
The report also states that Downey “did know something was wrong with the infant because he had walked in on [Steed] shaking the infant,” noted the investigator, adding the father’s suspicions were also evidenced by the fact the baby did not arrive to any of his scheduled medical appointments.
Had they kept the appointments, Downey told investigators, then his baby “would probably still be here.”
Downey also told investigators he should have taken the baby to the hospital and said he feels as though he failed his child. He also said every day he continues to carry feelings of failure, and despite a tattoo on his chest that reads “no regrets,” he said the death of his son was something “he honestly regrets.”
On Monday, Downey made an initial appearance in 5th District Court in Beaver County on the charges.
The case of the newborn’s mother
The case against Steed continues to move through the courts, as the medical records from both the Beaver County Medical Clinic and from Beaver Valley Hospital were received by both sides after the court issued a subpoena late last year.
Moreover, the court appointed two defense attorneys to represent Steed, including Douglas Terry, a capital defense attorney who is serving as lead counsel, since Steed faces a charge in which the maximum penalty may be death, while attorney Ryan Stout is serving as second chair.
The defense also requested that a mitigation expert be assigned in the case, which is typical with any capital offenses, and the request to assign Marissa Day was approved by the courts.
Steed is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing in the case on Aug. 4, and both defendants remain in custody at the Beaver County Jail without bail.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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