Stephan Sterns, the man accused of raping and murdering 13-year-old Madeline Soto, has accepted a plea deal that removes the possibility of the death penalty. Sterns appeared in a Florida courtroom on Monday, where he pleaded no contest to the murder charge and guilty to 60 counts of sexual abuse related to the case.
The plea hearing came just one day before Sterns was scheduled to stand trial on the sex abuse charges. He had previously faced the death penalty in his murder trial, set for September, but prosecutors agreed to drop it as part of the agreement.
Madeline Soto was reported missing on February 26, 2024, a day after her 13th birthday, when she failed to attend Hunter’s Creek Middle School. Over 50 law enforcement officers searched the nearby woods for days before her body was discovered on March 1 near Hickory Tree Road in Osceola County.
Investigators uncovered images on Sterns' phone and Google Drive depicting him raping the teenager. Sterns, the former boyfriend of Madeline's mother, Jenn Soto, had initially pleaded not guilty. He was arrested on February 28 after the discovery of disturbing images, which he had attempted to delete. A further arrest warrant on March 4 alleged he had been abusing Madeline since 2022, when she was 11.
