Man accused of hiding little boy's body in concrete to face trial

WICHITA, Kan. -- (WDAF) -- A man charged in the killing of a 3-year-old Kansas boy and hiding the body in concrete will be tried on six criminal counts.

Stephen Bodine was bound over for trial Tuesday on two counts of first-degree felony murder, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of child abuse and one count of aggravated child endangerment, in connection with Evan Brewer's death.

The boy's body was found in September encased in concrete in the laundry room of a Wichita rental home where he lived with his mother and Bodine, who was his mother's boyfriend.

The ruling came after testimony in a preliminary hearing Monday detailed verbal and physical abuse the boy suffered before his body was found in September in a home he shared with his mother, Miranda Miller, and Bodine, who was Miller's boyfriend.

Video and audio recordings played in court revealed that sometimes the little boy was forced to stand naked in the basement of his home with his hands behind his back and a belt around his neck, and he was taunted and slapped while he screamed and cried.

The Wichita Eagle reports Miller, who is charged with first-degree felony murder in her son's death, will be allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and other charges after she testifies against Bodine.

Miller testified that Evan died sometime between May 18 and May 22 or 23, 2017. She said on the day he died, Evan was being punished for not eating, and Bodine hit the boy so hard he became unresponsive. She said Bodine took Evan into the bathroom and she tried CPR on the boy for 45 minutes.

She said the next thing she remembered was waking up and asking about her son. She said Bodine told her that Evan had gone away because they couldn't take care of him anymore.

Miller said that a few days later in the laundry room, Bodine mixed up several bags of concrete and buried Evan's body in it.