Brian Stewart (phlebotomist)


Brian T. Stewart is a former phlebotomist from Columbia, Illinois, who was convicted in December 1998 of injecting his son with HIV-contaminated blood.

Child abuse incident

On February 6, 1992 in St Joseph's Hospital West, in Lake St. Louis, Missouri, Stewart's 11 month-old son Jackson was treated for asthma and pneumonia when he was infected with the virus. Jackson's mother contacted Stewart to inform him that their son was in the hospital. When he arrived, he sent Jackson's mother to the cafe to get a beverage. Stewart then allegedly injected tainted blood into his son. When Jackson's mother returned, her son was screaming in his fathers arms. The tainted blood was incompatible with Jackson's. The boy was diagnosed with AIDS in 1996. One night his pediatrician had a nightmare and awoke to call the hospital to tell them to test for HIV. Results came back positive, along with three infections.
On April 22, 1998, Stewart was charged with first-degree assault; the county prosecutor stated that this was because first-degree assault results in a longer sentence than attempted murder.
Prosecutors stated that Stewart was a phlebotomist who had daily access to blood, and Stewart's co-workers testified that Stewart had previously made threats to harm people using contaminated blood when he was angry. The motive behind the crime was Stewart's desire to avoid paying child support to the boy's mother.
A Missouri jury found Stewart guilty of first-degree assault on December 6, 1998. Stewart's attorney, Joe Murphy, said that "My client has maintained all along that he is innocent" and also claimed that "Mom made an allegation and everyone ran with it."
On January 9, 1999, Stewart was sentenced to life imprisonment at St. Charles County Circuit Court. Judge Ellsworth Cundiff said that the maximum sentence was inadequate, and told Stewart "injecting a child with the HIV virus really puts you in the same category as the worst war criminal" and "when God finally calls you, you are going to burn in hell from here to eternity."
Stewart became eligible for parole in 2011, but was twice denied it and will become eligible again in 2021.