Princeton Woman, 18, Accused of Beating Victim With Wooden Plank, Battering Two Kids

An 18-year-old Miami-Dade woman is facing aggravated battery and child abuse charges after deputies say video evidence showed her striking a victim with a wooden plank and battering two children during an altercation at her Princeton home. Stephanie Patrice Stanley was booked into county jail this week following the incident, which unfolded near the 28,000 block of Southwest 126th Court.

According to WPLG Local 10, Miami-Dade deputies were dispatched to Stanley's home on August 8 in reference to a fight involving injuries. Investigators say they later received several videos showing the incident, which they used to build the case against Stanley.

Video Shows Repeated Blows With a 2-by-4

Per the arrest report, the footage showed Stanley striking the victim in the back with a wooden plank four times. The victim told authorities she had been struck in the back several times with a 2-by-4 wood plank. The victim was taken to Jackson South Medical Center, a full-service acute care hospital in South Miami-Dade operated under the Jackson Health System, for treatment.

Deputies say separate video also showed Stanley battering two children during the same altercation. Authorities say Stanley admitted, per the arrest report, to striking the victim with the wooden plank and to battering the children. Stanley told deputies she was unaware that both children were under the age of 18, according to the report.

Charges and What Comes Next

Stanley is now facing one count of aggravated battery along with two counts of child abuse without great bodily harm, one for each child. Under Florida Statute § 784.045, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon is a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years in prison, 15 years of probation, and a $10,000 fine. Each child abuse count, charged as a third-degree felony under Florida Statute § 827.03(2)(c), carries up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Deputies have not released the relationship between Stanley and the victims, and the reason for the altercation remains unclear. As of Wednesday, Stanley was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Doral, the county's primary intake and booking facility for adult detainees, with her bond listed as to be set. Under Rule 3.130 of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, defendants held on pending bond status must appear before a circuit court judge within 24 hours of arrest so the court can determine conditions of release.

A Sheriff's Office Still Settling Into Its New Role

The deputies who responded belong to the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office, which officially replaced the former Miami-Dade Police Department on January 7, 2025, restoring an elected sheriff system to the county for the first time in nearly 60 years under Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz. Any allegation of child abuse in Florida must also be reported to the Florida Department of Children and Families' central Abuse Hotline, which coordinates with local law enforcement to assess whether protective intervention is needed, though the status of any parallel DCF review in this case has not been disclosed.

Princeton, an unincorporated community about 24 miles southwest of downtown Miami with a population that has grown past 45,000 residents, has seen a string of violent domestic incidents handled by South Dade deputies in recent weeks. In July, deputies arrested a 24-year-old Princeton resident on battery and animal cruelty charges stemming from another dispute at a home in the same community, before that suspect was also booked into TGK.