Two men will serve the rest of their lives in prison – or as close to that as possible – after pleading guilty to several counts regarding sexual activity with a two-year-old child.
15th Circuit District Attorney Hal Kittrell – who serves Lamar, Jefferson Davis, Lawrence, Marion and Pearl River counties – said on August 2 35-year-old Keldrick Jernell Magee of Bassfield and 64-year-old Kim Stewart Lodge of Seminary pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, sexual batter and forcible rape. The two made the plea in Jefferson Davis County Circuit Court in front of Judge Prentiss Harrell.
Each of the men’s total sentences equate to a day less than their individual life expectancies.
“We were going to make sure they got life, so what we did was … look at their age and what their (life expectancy) would be for their age and race, and that’s the time we gave them,” Kittrell said. “So those were very specific sentences that we gave.”
The case began on December 30,2021, when authorities received a report of a 2-year-old boy who had gone missing from an apartment complex in Bassfield. The child was found abandoned and naked on the side of the road in Sumrall, 15 hours after he was reported missing and 15 miles from where he was kidnapped.
The boy was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical in Jackson, where doctors observed injuries that indicated sexual abuse. At this point, law enforcement officials began an extensive search for the suspected kidnappers.
Officers began the search with Magee, who is a biological cousin of the victim and was the last known person to have had contact with the child before he was taken. Police then used surveillance cameras to locate Magee’s truck, which was found at a home in Seminary.
Officers were able to enter the home on January 5,2022, when they apprehended Magee and Lodge during an apparent attempt to flee the state.
Lodge, who at the time was 63 years old and had been in a relationship with Magee, later confessed to the charges and gave details of the crimes that had been committed to the child.
“This case is the nightmare of every person,” Kittrell said. “To have a baby taken and abused in the way these defendants abused this 2-year-old is horrific. That the child lived and healed from these brutal crimes is a miracle. That he now a normal, happy child is a miracle.
“There are no words to adequately describe the defendants in this case. In the same vein, there is no penalty under the law that they can receives that adequately punishes them for their vile crimes. However, we have ensured that they do not walk in the light of day again. Their sentences … begin to provide justice not only for the community, but for the victim is this case. This case is so egregious that everyone, from law enforcement to medical personnel, crime lab analysts to lay witnesses, have been emotionally impacted by it.”
Law enforcement agencies that work on the case include the Hattiesburg Police Department, the Sumrall Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Jefferson Davis County Sheriff’s Department, the Covington County Sheriff’s Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.
“We are thankful for (all their) work … in their investigation and dedication in this case,” Kittrell said. “I also want to thank (prosecutors) Carpenter Marsalis and Laurel Brinkley for their work in this case.
“Even though they are seasoned prosecutors who have both specialized in prosecuting crime of sexual assault, this case impacted them more severely than any other cases of this nature and I appreciate their efforts.”
