Trial date set for 2025 in case of Kansas City woman accused of killing 6-year-old son

A Jackson County judge has set a trial date next year for a Kansas City woman accused of killing her 6-year-old son in 2022.

Tasha Haefs, 37, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges in Jackson County Circuit Court late last month after she was found to be competent to proceed to trial. In an order Tuesday, Judge Joel Fahnestock set a trial date for Haefs for April 7, 2025.

In a court filing on Monday, Haefs’ attorney Anthony Vibbard wrote that at this point he did not intend to use expert testimony or rely on an alibi defense and that, “Defendant does not intend to rely on the defense of mental disease or defect excluding responsibility.”

At the time of the killing, relatives of Haefs, who is accused of killing her 6-year-old son Karvel Stevens, told The Star Haefs spent years working through drug addiction, depression and severe trauma.

Proceedings had been paused as Haefs underwent a period of treatment under the supervision of Missouri’s Department of Mental Health, but the criminal case began moving forward after a judge ruled last month Haefs was competent to stand trial and ordered the case to proceed.

Kansas City police were called to Haefs’ residence on Indiana Avenue on a disturbance call in February 2022 and during their response found the decapitated body of Haefs’ child, as well as Haefs, who had blood on her, and a pair of knives that also had blood on them.

During an interview with investigators, Haefs identified the victim as her child and admitted to killing the boy in a bathtub, according to court documents.