4 defendants in 2023 murder at abandoned Boysville facility sentenced to prison

MONROE — Four of the six defendants involved in the murder of a young Monroe mother in February 2023 at an abandoned juvenile detention facility were sentenced to prison Thursday.

The plot by the six supposed friends of 23-year-old Kayla Marie Sedoskey to kill her was "ridiculous," Monroe County Circuit Judge Daniel S. White said more than once in issuing the sentences to Steven Douglas Bails Jr., Narena Picola Bails, Sierra Nicole Bemis and Alexander Robert Feko. The Bailses and Bemis were to be sent to the Michigan Department of Corrections immediately, while Feko will stay in the Monroe County Jail until other matters he has before the courts are resolved, then he'll be sent to prison, too.

Two more defendants, Brin David Westley Smith, 21, of Monroe and Kaylyn Marie Ramsey, 34, of Wakeman, Ohio, are to be sentenced by White on Thursday, May 30.

Steven Bails, 45, of Frenchtown Township was convicted by a jury in March of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He received the longest sentences: life in prison without parole on the first-degree murder charge and life with the possibility of parole on the conspiracy charge.

Bails has a "terrible" criminal history and was the leader and instigator of the plan, White said, but he "couldn't go so far as to say he's the brains of this operation."

The reason for the killing remains unclear, Monroe County Prosecutor Jeffrey Yorkey said in a news release, but evidence suggests that it could have been a “wedding present” for Narena Bails from Steven Bails or simply a revenge killing for words exchanged between Ramsey and Sedoskey. Sedoskey and Steven Bails Jr. had been in a romantic relationship at one point, and Sedoskey and the six defendants had been roommates.

Steven Bails and the former Narena Cherry received a marriage license from the Monroe County Clerk's Office in February 2023.

The Michigan State Police said previously that the suspects conspired to kill Sedoskey over multiple disagreements that they had with her.

"You can't just eliminate someone because they irritate you," White said before sentencing Steven Bails.

Bails' wife, Narena Bails, 25, received a 13.5- to 30-year prison term. She pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated like a guilty plea for sentencing.

Bemis, 24, also pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. White sentenced her to 18 years and 9 months to 30 years in prison.

Feko, 27, of Detroit Beach pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and three counts of accessory after the fact to a felony. White sentenced him to 5 to 10 years in prison on the evidence tampering charge and 3 years and 2 months to 5 years on each of the accessory charges. The terms will run concurrently.

All of the defendants received credit for time already served in jail since being arrested and were ordered to pay court costs.

Narena Bails, Bemis and Feko all testified against Steven Bails at his trial, Yorkey said.

Bails, like the other defendants, declined to speak on his own behalf Thursday. His attorney, Joel Kershaw, told the court Bails expresses his sympathy to Sedoskey's family and accepts the jury's verdicts, but he maintains his innocence.

The other defendants' attorneys said little, too. Feko's attorney, Jim Bartlett, noted that Feko had an attack of conscience and went to law enforcement to tell them what happened. While the investigators likely would have figured out what happened eventually, he said, Feko helped bring about justice more quickly.

Bemis' attorney, Thomas Ruddy, said she was susceptible to manipulation and Steven Bails was like a father to her. He said she had taken responsibility for her role in the murder and knows the seriousness of the sentence. She was visibly shaking at times as she sat at the defense table.

Ruddy argued for reductions in the scoring by the probation department of some of the offense variables used to calculate the sentencing guidelines that judges use to set the minimum sentence. White agreed to reduce the points assessed on the variable related to exploitation of a vulnerable victim, but that did not change the guidelines.

White said both Narena Bails and Bemis were given psychological evaluations and were found to be competent to stand trial and be responsible for their crimes. He also said the evaluations showed signs of intellectual disabilities for both, but he said they and Feko all could have made the right choice to report the plan.

In arguing the scoring on the offense variable related to intent to kill for Bemis, prosecutor's office Senior Trial Attorney Ragan Lake said Bemis knew that day and before "they were going to kill Kayla, and she went along with it."

White agreed.

"That was the plan," he said. "They weren't going to do anything other than kill her."

According to the Michigan State Police, which led the investigation, the defendants devised a plan to have Smith pretend to show interest in dating Sedoskey. He utilized Facebook to “catfish” her and to schedule a date. On Feb. 15, 2023, Smith picked Sedoskey up for their planned date and drove her to the abandoned Boysville facility, where Steven Bails, Ramsey and Bemis were waiting for her. Once there, Sedoskey was attacked by her killers. Her body had three gunshot wounds from a suspected .22-caliber handgun, including one at point-blank range to the top of her head. Investigators determined the murder happened between 10 p.m. Feb. 15 and 12:30 a.m. Feb. 16, 2023.

After the murder, White said, Feko took the gun, which had blood on its barrel, and cleaned it. However, he said, Feko's testimony during Steven Bails' trial "rang true."

The investigation revealed that Narena Bails listened to a police scanner at the suspects’ apartment and was supposed to notify them if the police were responding to Boysville, state police said. The day after the homicide, Steven Bails, Smith, Ramsey and Bemis went back to Boysville to hide Sedoskey’s body and to cover it with fragrances as a way to hide the smell of decay.

Sedoskey's body was found wrapped in a tarp at Boysville on March 2, 2023, by high school students exploring the facility.

The Bailses and Smith fled the state after Sedoskey’s body was located, state police said. The Bailses were arrested in North Carolina in April 2023 after a several-hour standoff with the U.S. Marshals Service. Smith was caught in Ohio.

During Narena Bails' sentencing, which was the first of the four conducted Thursday, Sedoskey's mother, younger sister and the father of her young son described to the court the pain of learning how she died, how an embalming specialist worked to give her a dignified burial, and the loss they have experienced and will continue to experience. The boy's father said their son sometimes asks where his mother is.

"I tell him he has to look to the sky if he wants to see Mommy," he said.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Defendants in murder at abandoned Boysville facility sentenced