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Milwaukee mother killed, man in custody
A Milwaukee man is accused of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of Tomitka Stewart, a mother to 10 kids and three stepchildren.
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee man is accused of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of Tomitka Stewart, a mother to 10 kids and three stepchildren, whose body was found on April 17 three days after she went missing.
Prosecutors also charged 41-year-old Jerrod Stewart with felony bail jumping; he had been released from custody on GPS monitoring in a domestic violence case involving Tomitka Stewart, who court filings identified as his estranged wife. Officials said he is in custody in Hennepin County, Minnesota.
Tomitka Stewart had been last seen on April 14 in the area of 10th and Center. According to a criminal complaint, her car was spotted on surveillance video from North Division High School that night near 11th and Clarke – around the corner from where she'd been last seen.
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The video showed Tomitka Stewart's red Dodge parked on Clarke Street when a gray Mitsubishi pulled up behind it around 7:15 p.m., per the complaint. The driver of the gray Mitsubishi got out and into the front passenger seat of the red Dodge. Around 8 p.m., there "appeared to be movement" in the red Dodge. The passenger who arrived in the gray Mitsubishi then got out and into the driver's seat of the red Dodge and drove off. Tomitka Stewart, identified as the original driver of the red Dodge, never got out.
The same camera captured video of a white Ford the next day. The complaint states the white Ford parked, and a passenger got out and into the gray Mitsubishi across the street, which had been left there the previous day.
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According to the complaint, a GPS device was installed on Tomitka Stewart's red Dodge. Data from the device placed her car in the area of Hopkins and Congress around 9:50 p.m. – almost two hours after it was driven off. It was then driven to the area of 29th and Ruby and parked ther on the morning of April 15.
Police found the red Dodge on April 17 with Tomitka Stewart dead in the trunk, the complaint states. An autopsy determined she suffered 49 stab wounds and blunt force trauma to her head. A family member told investigators that Jerrod Stewart had previously "threatened to kill" Tomitka Stewart, per the complaint.
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Investigators spoke to the driver of the white Ford seen returning to the area of 11th and Clarke, who said the person who she dropped off was Jerrod Stewart. The driver also said, before dropping Jerrod Stewart off at that location, she picked him up from where he left the red Dodge – near 29th and Ruby.
The complaint states Jerrod Stewart's GPS tracking device placed him at the locations and times seen on surveillance as well.
Milwaukee police detectives went to Minnesota to interview Jerrod Stewart on April 18, the day after Tomitka Stewart's body was found. He said he last saw her on April 15, but made no mention of the red Dodge being left near 29th and Ruby and claimed to have no knowledge of the white Ford.