KANNAPOLIS — A Kannapolis man pleaded guilty Thursday to murdering his girlfriend’s 10-year-old son earlier this year in an attack that left the boy’s mother severely injured.
Eugene William Mays received a sentence of life in prison for the killing of Mark Stewart.
Kannapolis police found the boy dead and 32-year-old Christi Melisha Stewart badly injured when they responded to a request April 7 to check on the welfare of the residents at the South Ridge Avenue home where Mays lived with Stewart.
Both had been stabbed multiple times.
Investigators found Mays at a home in Gaston County around 2 a.m. the next morning. He was arrested on outstanding warrants for unrelated charges, then charged with first-degree murder later in the day.
At his first court appearance the next day, Mays waived his right to an attorney and asked a judge to sentence him immediately.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors did not charge Mays with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Mark Stewart was a fifth-grader at Royal Oaks Elementary School in the Cabarrus County school system.