Following a lengthy investigation by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, a Belleview man has been charged with second-degree murder by detectives who determined his six-month-old son died in August 2024 from severe head trauma and shaking that he caused while high on methamphetamine.
James Francis Westervelt III was taken into custody by law enforcement authorities on June 8, following a comprehensive investigation by major crimes detectives into the August 2024 passing of his late son, Kenneth John “KJ” Woodard Westervelt.
Ocala-News.com first reported on KJ’s death in October 2024. At the time, MCSO confirmed that the case was actively being investigated.
According to a 19-page arrest affidavit filed in the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court of Marion County, the case dates back to August 12, 2024, when emergency dispatchers received a 911 call regarding an unresponsive infant at a home in Belleview.
Paramedics arrived at the scene and rushed KJ, who was six months old at the time, to AdventHealth Ocala. Due to the severe nature of the child’s condition, he was quickly transferred via air ambulance to AdventHealth Orlando for a higher level of specialized care.
Later that evening, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office was notified by hospital personnel that the infant had sustained critical, non-accidental brain injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome. Major crimes detectives immediately launched an investigation and responded to the family’s residence to interview witnesses.
At the time of the incident, the infant lived with his mother, Stephanie Johnson, his two older juvenile siblings, and his father, James Westervelt III. The child’s maternal grandmother, Kathleen Norton, also lived on the property in a camper situated in the backyard.
During her initial interview with detectives on the scene, Norton recalled receiving a panicked phone call from her daughter stating that something was wrong with the baby. Norton ran to the house, took the limp and pale infant into her arms, and observed that his eyes were barely open.
As she moved into the living room while Westervelt was on the phone with 911, Norton reported that she tripped over a toy on the floor and fell with the child. She noted that the baby remained in her arms during the fall but that his neck flopped back slightly.
Detectives then traveled to the pediatric intensive care unit in Orlando, where the infant remained in a coma. Separate interviews were conducted with both parents.
According to Johnson, she woke up early that morning to feed the baby a bottle before leaving the house at 4:35 a.m. to visit a grieving friend.
When she returned home at approximately 5:45 a.m., she checked on the baby, who appeared to be sleeping normally in a bassinet inside the master bedroom. Johnson then began helping her daughter get ready for her first day of school.
After Westervelt took the daughter to the bus stop at 6:40 a.m. and returned, the couple ate breakfast. Right before they intended to take a shower, Johnson checked on the infant again and noticed his eyes were partially open, and he was completely cold, limp, and unresponsive to her touch, prompting her to scream for help.
When detectives initially interviewed James Westervelt III at the hospital, he provided a matching timeline but introduced an alternative explanation for the injuries.
Westervelt III claimed that after Johnson left the house in the early morning hours, he went to the bathroom for about five minutes. Upon exiting, he claimed he found his two-year-old son sitting inside the bassinet with the crying infant, repeatedly poking the baby in the head.
Westervelt claimed he removed the toddler and bounced the infant to soothe him, maintaining that the baby was acting normally afterward.
When detectives informed Westervelt that a toddler poking an infant could not mathematically or physically cause such catastrophic brain trauma, Westervelt altered his story.
The father then claimed that four days prior, on August 8, he left the infant unattended on the master bed and found him screaming on the floor after rolling off. He also claimed the baby had been throwing up frequently over the weekend, which he attributed to a recent transition to solid foods.
As the investigation progressed, detectives uncovered a history of family dynamics and unreported physical injuries to the child.
A former roommate, Christopher Smith, approached law enforcement and revealed that he had been engaged in an ongoing sexual affair with Johnson. Smith stated that Westervelt was fully aware of the affair and was acutely aware of the possibility that the infant was not his biological child.
Furthermore, family friends and relatives reported to detectives that Westervelt treated the infant noticeably differently than his other children, showing a distinct lack of love, warmth, or affection toward the boy.
Smith also detailed a deeply concerning incident that occurred on the evening of August 8, 2024, while Johnson was away shopping. Smith recalled hearing the baby crying while Westervelt was alone with him in the bathroom for up to fifteen minutes. When they emerged, the infant vomited heavily multiple times and had a large, visible bruise on the side of his head.
Westervelt later explained to Johnson that he had slipped in the shower while holding the baby, causing the child’s head to strike a wooden tray. Smith also noted an incident from a few months prior where the baby suffered severe head swelling, which was also excused as a fall from a bed.
Despite the persistent vomiting over the weekend, Johnson told detectives she did not suspect an injury because the baby seemed alert, smiling, and playful between the brief episodes of throwing up.
Smith confirmed that on the night of August 10, the baby appeared completely normal, tracking movements alertly with his eyes.
On August 16, 2024, at 2:05 a.m., the six-month-old infant was officially removed from life support and passed away.
An autopsy that was conducted by Pathologist Dr. Barbara Wolf with the Fifth District Medical Examiner’s Office listed the cause of death as hypoxic/ischemic encephalopathy due to blunt head trauma. The autopsy revealed acute subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhaging, severe traumatic axonal injury, extensive bilateral retinal hemorrhaging, and severe brain swelling.
The medical examiner officially ruled the manner of death a homicide, concluding that the injuries were the result of a purposeful, violent, and intentional act. Dr. Wolf firmly stated that neither a minor fall from a bed nor the described shower mishap could account for the sheer severity of the internal head trauma.
Additionally, medical experts concluded that the infant’s normal, alert behavior on August 10 completely disproved the idea that the fatal injuries were caused by any previous falls earlier that week.
Despite the circumstances, the case did not experience a breakthrough until a secondary, post-Miranda interview with Westervelt after he was arrested on an unrelated child abuse warrant earlier this year.
Facing the definitive medical evidence, Westervelt’s narrative fractured into multiple systemic contradictions.
He admitted that he had lied in his initial statements to law enforcement regarding his sobriety, confessing that he had actually smoked methamphetamine with Johnson between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. on the morning of August 12, just hours before the child was found unresponsive. He acknowledged that the heavy drug use caused severe sleep deprivation, irritability, and delusions.
Westervelt then changed his account of what occurred in the bedroom that morning. He claimed that after the infant woke up crying for a feed at 5:30 a.m., he left the room briefly.
This time, instead of his toddler merely poking the baby, Westervelt claimed the two-year-old was actively jumping up and down directly on top of the infant inside the bassinet. Westervelt admitted that he panicked because the baby was screaming uncontrollably. He confessed that he grabbed the infant and began bouncing him up and down to force him to stop crying.
During the interview, detectives provided Westervelt with a life-sized baby doll and asked him to demonstrate exactly how he handled his son that morning.
Westervelt proceeded to demonstrate a highly vigorous, aggressive up-and-down shaking and bouncing motion, using the full weight and strength of his legs and knees to fuel the force. He conceded that this was not how he normally rocked a child, explaining that his adrenaline was extremely high and that the bouncing was intentionally rougher than normal due to his state of mind.
Westervelt stated that he bounced the infant forcefully for about fifteen seconds until the crying abruptly stopped.
He noted that when he placed the child back into the bassinet, the infant immediately made an unnatural, gasping breathing sound, missed a breath, and closed his eyes permanently.
This final interaction occurred roughly ten minutes before Johnson walked into the room and discovered the child dying.
Detectives also monitored recorded jail phone calls made by Westervelt. In one conversation concerning the destruction of his relationship with Johnson following the homicide, Westervelt stated that he told her none of this would have ever happened if she had never cheated on him.
In their final summary, detectives noted that while Westervelt was an experienced parent who had successfully raised two older children without a single medical incident, the victim suffered at least four severe physical injuries during his short six-month life, each occurring while left exclusively in Westervelt’s care.
Combined with his admitted rough handling of the child while under the influence of methamphetamine and the conclusive autopsy findings, authorities determined Westervelt perpetrated a depraved, imminently dangerous act without regard for human life.
When Ocala-News.com first reported on Westervelt in October 2024, the father had taken to multiple social media platforms and posted dozens of public-facing comments about his grief in the two months following KJ’s death. Many of those posts and that data was deleted from the platforms in the aftermath of that story.
In the past 10 months, Westervelt appears to have began posting regularly again. During that time, he has posted over 500 different images and statements.
Westervelt is currently being held at the Marion County Jail under no bond as the case moves forward in the court system.