Editor’s note: This story contains graphic testimony and descriptions of injuries to an infant that some readers may find disturbing.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — A Buncombe County mother testified Friday in the murder trial of her daughter’s father, telling jurors through tears about the baby’s short life and unexpected death.
Nickolas Shane Stephenson, 37, is charged with first-degree murder and intentional child abuse causing serious bodily injury in the June 2022 death of his 12-week-old daughter, Riley Leshae Hannah Stephenson.
The child’s mother, 32-year-old Diandra Haleigh Fuhr-Farlow, entered the courtroom in a brown jail jumpsuit and shackles before taking the stand for the prosecution. She testified that she is being held at the Buncombe County Detention Facility after pleading guilty to intentional child abuse causing serious bodily injury in connection with her daughter’s death. She has not been sentenced but faces up to 441 months (more than 36 years) in prison.
Assistant District Attorneys Amy Buchanan and Stormy Ellis are leading the prosecution. Stephenson is represented by defense attorney Dustin Randolph Dow.
Fuhr-Farlow said she and Stephenson had been in a relationship for nine years. She admitted that in her first interview with investigators after Riley’s death, she lied in an effort to protect Stephenson.
“I was in shock. I was more or less trying to protect someone, and it wasn’t my daughter at that point in time,” Fuhr-Farlow told jurors, wiping tears from her eyes. “After being in a relationship with someone for so long, it was kind of just my automatic reaction.”
She added that she did not initially realize the severity of the situation.
“There was one paramedic who reported that she was breathing again, so I thought she had [survived],” Fuhr-Farlow said of her daughter. “I didn’t realize she had passed until a few hours into interrogation.”
During Fuhr-Farlow’s testimony, Stephenson sat at the defense table with his chin in his hand and showed no visible emotion.
Talking with authorities
Fuhr-Farlow testified that she initially lied to investigators about how her daughter received bruises and burns before her death.
She told jurors she was not fully truthful when speaking with authorities on June 28, 2022, the day Riley died. First responders and detectives suspected abuse at the time because of the child’s injuries, according to earlier testimony and court records.
In her first account to investigators, Fuhr-Farlow said Riley’s head struck a faucet during a bath. She claimed she and Stephenson first used ice on the injury, then a heated pack that burned the baby’s face. She told investigators she had placed the heating pad in the microwave and later added that the couple used ointment on the burns. She also claimed Riley briefly swallowed the cap before they removed it.
On the stand Friday, Fuhr-Farlow said the only part of that account that was true was that a heating pad had been used in an attempt to reduce bruising. She testified that Riley’s bruises were actually caused by Stephenson flicking or thumping the infant on the head.
Although she initially told investigators she applied the heating pad, Fuhr-Farlow said Stephenson heated and pressed it to Riley’s face.
“He put the heating pad in the microwave. I’m not sure for how long. And then he applied it to her face above her left eye, and she almost immediately began to cry,” Fuhr-Farlow said through tears. “There was a really bad red mark that had turned into a little blister.”
Fuhr-Farlow testified that she wanted to take Riley to visit her family, but Stephenson insisted she keep the baby home until the bruises healed. She estimated the burns occurred when Riley was about 2 months old.
She then described other incidents of alleged abuse, saying Stephenson sometimes forced a bottle nipple so far into Riley’s mouth that even the plastic rim disappeared inside. The baby would cry, she said, but Stephenson kept pushing.
She told jurors he frequently flicked the infant’s forehead, ears and feet when she cried. She said she saw him twist Riley’s torso by her ankles, hold her by one arm during baths and, on another occasion, slam her onto a changing table.
“When I saw that, I told him you can’t handle her like that. She’s not developed. She’s an infant,” Fuhr-Farlow said.
She also recounted a time when a baby wipe became lodged in Riley’s throat, with only a corner visible. Fuhr-Farlow said she eventually pulled it out with tweezers after Stephenson stuck his finger deep inside the baby’s mouth. The wipe, she said, came out bloodied.
“I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know why it happened,” she told jurors. “It’s my assumption that he shoved it down her throat, but I honestly don’t know.”
Fuhr-Farlow testified that Stephenson sometimes swaddled Riley so tightly that her arms were pinned behind her back and her face turned red. He believed it would help her sleep, she said. Other times, she said, he shoved a pacifier into her mouth or held his hand over it for about 30 seconds.
Three days before Riley’s death, Fuhr-Farlow said she woke during the night to find Stephenson holding the baby by the neck.
“She was crying,” Fuhr-Farlow said. “Her whole face was red. I grabbed her from him, and she started to calm down.”
Prosecutors pressed Fuhr-Farlow about her original account that Riley had hit her head on a faucet.
“You told paramedics and law enforcement that she hit her head on the bathroom faucet, right?” Buchanan asked. “Did you ever actually see that? Do you know if that did happen? Do you know if that did not happen?”
“I’m not sure. That’s what he told me happened,” Fuhr-Farlow said.
She said Stephenson’s flicking was random, usually when he was frustrated with Riley’s crying.
“When she would cry, he would just be really frustrated,” Fuhr-Farlow said. “When he would walk past her, he would flick her feet, he would flick her forehead, he would flick her ears.”
She testified that Stephenson frequently complained about Riley’s crying and once remarked that he wished they had never had her.
Riley’s life in photos
Jurors on Friday were shown dozens of photos and videos of Riley, as prosecutors asked the baby’s mother to describe what she saw in the images.
The photos, pulled from Fuhr-Farlow’s phone, spanned from early April to late June 2022 and traced Riley’s short life — from her first days in the hospital to signs of bruising, burns and weight loss.
Fuhr-Farlow testified she initially took many of the pictures to capture “cute” moments. But as time passed, the images showed scratches, bruises and other injuries.
“Every time I asked where they came from, he would say he didn’t know,” Fuhr-Farlow said, referring to Stephenson, Riley’s father.
In later photos, Riley appeared thinner, with her ribs showing.
“She had gradually started losing weight. She wasn’t eating like she should,” Fuhr-Farlow testified. “I thought she was going to get better.”
Asked by the prosecutor if she caused any of the injuries, Fuhr-Farlow replied: “Absolutely not.”
She said she witnessed some of the bruises and burns being inflicted, while others she only saw afterward.
When prosecutors showed her the final photo she took — just hours before Riley’s death on June 28, 2022 — Fuhr-Farlow broke down.
“Devastated,” she said, describing her reaction to learning her daughter had died. “I really did not expect her to pass away. I thought she would get better.”
The earliest photos showed a baby crib and changing table on April 2, followed by a snapshot of Riley when she was born two days later and another of her car seat as she prepared to leave the hospital on April 6.
By early May, Fuhr-Farlow admitted, the photos revealed troubling details. One image showed a scratch on Riley’s chin. Another showed a mark on her lip.
A May 9 photo showed Riley with a cap pulled over her head. Fuhr-Farlow testified Stephenson used the hat to keep a pacifier in her mouth.
“When her pacifier would fall out, she would cry. So, it was his idea to pull her hat down over her head,” Fuhr-Farlow said.
“Why would you let that happen?” Buchanan asked.
“Every time I would get up and change it, he would just pull it right back down,” Fuhr-Farlow said. “She started to cry at first, but then I guess she just got used to it.”
Later photos showed bruises on Riley’s forehead and marks on her ears. Fuhr-Farlow said Stephenson frequently flicked the baby’s forehead and pinched her ears.
By late May, images showed Riley with bruises, scratches and visible weight loss. A May 29 video captured Stephenson dropping, flipping and catching the baby.
“I think he thinks he’s playing with her,” Fuhr-Farlow said. “Obviously, she’s not happy.”
In June, more photos documented injuries — including a red mark from a heating pad that had burned Riley’s face.
Fuhr-Farlow admitted she did not seek medical care for the baby.
“I wasn’t able to get her to the doctor by myself,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
The final image, taken June 28, showed Riley emaciated with visible bruises and burns.
“You saw her laying there like that and didn’t call 911?” Buchanan asked.
“She was breathing. I didn’t expect her to pass away,” Fuhr-Farlow said, estimating Riley had not eaten in the three to four days leading up to her death.
Through tears, she repeated: “I really did not expect her to pass away.”
The day Riley died
Fuhr-Farlow testified that she woke around 7:30 a.m. on June 28, 2022, and noticed her daughter Riley was lethargic and coughing.
“She had bruises and burn marks that were already there, and her breathing was just a little raspy,” Fuhr-Farlow said.
She told jurors she tried to feed Riley, but the baby would not take a bottle. Fuhr-Farlow said she held her for a short time before laying her back down and starting work from home. Stephenson got up a few hours later, around 11 a.m., she said, and checked on Riley before going back to watch television.
By early afternoon, Fuhr-Farlow said she realized something was wrong.
“I didn’t hear that raspy breathing anymore,” she said. “That’s when I checked her, and she wasn’t breathing.”
Fuhr-Farlow said she immediately called 911, but Stephenson told her not to bring paramedics to the house because they had marijuana inside. Instead, she said, he told her to carry Riley to the car and he would drive to the end of the driveway to meet first responders.
“I was on the phone with the 911 operator, and she was instructing me how to give CPR,” Fuhr-Farlow said.
“And you weren’t doing what you were told?” Buchanan asked.
“I mean, I was. I was trying to listen to her, listen to him, and it was just, it all was just happening so fast,” Fuhr-Farlow said.
“So why did you listen to him instead of the 911 operator?” Buchanan asked.
“I don’t know,” she said.
Paramedics arrived minutes later and took over.
“I kept asking how she was doing,” Fuhr-Farlow said. “One of them told me she had started to breathe again, and that made me feel a little bit better.”
At the hospital, Riley was pronounced dead.
“Before you called 911, when’s the last time you heard Riley cry?” Buchanan asked.
“She didn’t really cry at all that day,” the baby’s mother said.
Fuhr-Farlow testified that she was interviewed by sheriff’s detectives the same day but admitted she was not truthful at first.
She said that during the interview at the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, Stephenson called her.
“I told him I was just confused, that they told me that her ribs were broken. And then he just said that he didn’t believe that she had passed. And then he just said, ‘You know I’m screwed, right?”
Fuhr-Farlow said he did not tell her what he was concerned about.
Cross examination
During cross-examination, Dow pressed Fuhr-Farlow about the lies she admitted telling investigators on the day her daughter died.
“My job today is to tell the truth because she can’t,” Fuhr-Farlow said of Riley.
Dow questioned Fuhr-Farlow about the final photo she took of her daughter just hours before the infant’s death. He read from a November 2023 interview in which she told detectives she snapped the picture because Riley’s hand was curled under her face in a way she thought looked “cute.”
“Remember, you said you didn’t tell a lie,” Dow said. “So is that the truth? The reason why you took that photo? Because you thought she was really cute? The one specific hand movement. Yeah, the one you’re crying about today.”
“Remember, you said you didn’t tell a lie,” Dow said, raising his voice. “So is that the truth? The reason you took that photo was because you thought she was really cute? The one you’re crying about today?”
“Her hand, not the injuries,” Fuhr-Farlow replied.
Dow also challenged Fuhr-Farlow’s claim that she did not know how to seek medical help for Riley. He pointed to evidence showing she logged more than 4,700 actions on her cell phone during the baby’s life.
“You want the jury to believe you didn’t have a way to get help?” Dow asked. “Instead of sending one of those silly, pointless messages, why not say Riley needs help?”
Fuhr-Farlow testified that she had scheduled a doctor’s appointment for Riley, but that it was still weeks away. On the day Riley died, she said, she called MAHEC to try to get an earlier appointment.
Dow also suggested Fuhr-Farlow’s testimony was influenced by a plea agreement she made with prosecutors.
“You see the part that says the defendant pleads guilty to the (Class) B2 felony of intentional child abuse?” Dow asked Fuhr-Farlow. “This is a plea and an agreement to testify. The defendant agrees to testify AGAINST Nicholas Shane Stevenson. Doesn’t say testify truthfully. It says testify against.”
“This is my opportunity to stand up and speak for my daughter,” Fuhr-Farlow responded.
Dow pressed further, saying the deal gave her motive to change her story.
“You’re getting a deal to testify,” he said. “Could that not be part of the reason that your story changed from your first interview, when you said he did nothing wrong, to today, where you say he did everything wrong?”
Fuhr-Farlow denied that, insisting her account was truthful.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think about what happened,” she said. “And it’s just not fair, everything that she had to go through and everything she had to suffer through.”
Through tears, she added: “My daughter will never be able to speak for herself. I just want to do the best I can do for her.”
On redirect, prosecutors asked Fuhr-Farlow if she believed she was being told to lie about Stephenson’s actions.
Fuhr-Farlow said she has accepted responsibility for her daughter’s death and did not think prosecutors were asking her to be untruthful in her testimony.
She was also asked if she could have called 911 for Riley but chose not to.
“Correct,” Fuhr-Farlow said. “I really thought things would get better.”
Prior coverage
Body cam, crime scene evidence shown in Asheville murder trial
Emergency responders testify in death of 12-week-old