An Osceola County judge could deal a deathblow to the sex crimes trial of Stephan Sterns as he weighs whether detectives illegally seized a cellphone containing evidence of yearslong abuse of 13-year-old Madeline Soto.
This comes after a three-hour hearing Wednesday where Sterns’ public defenders argued Orange County investigators coerced him into giving up his phone without a warrant in the investigation’s early days. Prosecutors said the warrantless search was valid since Sterns consented to it and as law enforcement found inconsistencies regarding his whereabouts the day Madeline was reported missing in February 2024.
Sterns is accused of murdering Madeline — and faces the death penalty if convicted — in addition to being charged with numerous sex crimes, for sexual battery since she was 11 to dozens of counts of possessing images and videos of the abuse. Despite being handled separately, the outcome of the sex crimes case is expected to influence the murder trial scheduled to begin in September.
Judge Keith Carsten is expected to rule before June. He heard testimony from three detectives who interviewed Sterns the day after Madeline’s disappearance.
According to their testimony, Detective Maira Tagler first asked for Sterns’ phone to check the settings on his Google account but continued to look through his call history and travel logs as he stood close by.
At no point did Sterns, who entered his passcode to unlock his phone, ask her to stop looking through it, Tagler said.
“So it’s your basis that he has to say no — you can just keep digging until he says stop?” asked Alex Johnson, a public defender who led arguments on Sterns’ behalf.
She replied, “Correct. He was standing next to me and saw what I was doing on his cellphone.”
During her search, Tagler discovered the phone had undergone a factory reset, a process that requires several steps despite Sterns insisting it was accidental.
Assistant State Attorney Danielle Pinnell said investigators had to move quickly to avoid evidence on the device possibly being destroyed.
Pinnell further pointed to license plate reader logs showing where Sterns actually was the day Madeline went missing: traveling to and from St. Cloud, contrary to his initial claim that he last saw the teen after dropping her off near Hunters Creek Middle School. Her body was later found beneath a pile of brush on property in the city.
Those logs coupled with the phone reset provided investigators the probable cause to conduct a deeper search of the device without a warrant, she said.
“Courts have found this exception particularly compelling when you’re dealing with digital evidence,” Pinnell added. The search of his phone later yielded a warrant for the data in his Google account. That evidence is now the basis of the sex crimes trial.
The hearing came a day after Alesha Smith, another of Sterns’ public defenders, sought to delay the proceeding after obtaining “confidential information” she said could have changed how arguments were presented.
Carsten ruled against her after she refused to reveal that information in open court or even to the him privately. Prosecutors said they were not made aware of any new evidence by the defense.
It’s been more than a year since Madeline’s body was found. Sterns told investigators he slept in bed with her the night before her disappearance while her mother, who he was dating, slept in another room of their apartment in Kissimmee. That arrangement was common in the household, according to law enforcement reports.
The investigation was initially handled by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office before being turned over to the Kissimmee Police Department after detectives found video purportedly of Sterns tossing the teen’s belongings while her body sat limp in the passenger seat of his car.
Sterns, who sat in the courtroom Wednesday, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Madeline’s mother, Jennifer Soto, has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing.