‘He Should've Gone to Jail'; Escalating Abuse, Five 911 Calls Preceded Lewisville Murder-suicide

Darryl Stegall was a wanted man when he kicked in the door to Kishana Jeffers’ apartment on Thanksgiving and fatally shot her and himself in front of their three children ages 7, 9 and 10.Weeks earlier, Lewisville police had issued a warrant for Stegall’s arrest on a sexual assault of a child charge. But Jeffers’ friends and family say police should have arrested Stegall and taken the domestic violence allegations to the district attorney long before they charged him with sexually abusing the child.Police had responded to five 911 calls from Jeffers regarding Stegall between April and June 2018. But officers said Jeffers wasn’t cooperative, so they never arrested Stegall, nor did they refer those abuse cases to prosecutors.Denton County prosecutors, however, say cooperation doesn’t necessarily block prosecution of domestic violence cases. Jamie Beck, an assistant district attorney, said the only cases that are impossible to prosecute are the ones that police don’t bring to them.“We have a no-drop policy. ... We go the distance with [each case],” Beck said. “We don’t care about uncooperative witnesses ... we still go forward on any case that we can legally prove.”Lewisville police Capt. Dan Rochelle said the "no-drop policy" is good in theory, but is challenging for officers who have to focus their energy on the cases most likely to result in convictions."It has been our experience in working with the DA's office ... that they would have declined this case,” Rochelle said.  Continue reading...