CALDWELL, Idaho (Court TV) — Attorneys for a man accused of murdering a 5-year-old neighbor are pushing for charges against him to be dismissed, saying there is little to no evidence that connects their client to the crime.
Stacey Wondra appears in court for his preliminary hearing on March 3, 2026. (Court TV)
Michael Vaughan was 5 years old when he disappeared from his home on July 27, 2021. Stacey Wondra, 33, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping charges in the case. Wondra has claimed, in a number of interviews with police, that he was merely a witness to Michael’s abduction and killing — the real guilty parties, he says, are his wife and two people who were staying at the couple’s home at the time.
Wondra’s attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the charges, arguing that the evidence against their client is insufficient to sustain a conviction. In interviews with investigators, Wondra described what happened to the child, “including bringing Michael into their home, taping him up with duct tape, putting him into a duffel bag for transport, and placing the duffel bag into the back of their GMC truck, in order to transport Michael,” the motion says. After returning to the bag the next day, and finding the child dead, Wondra said his wife and the two friends dug a hole in the yard and buried the child.
MORE | Defendant: Child screamed ‘I want my mommy’ while being duct-taped
FILE – Michael Vaughan (Fruitland Police Department)
While this was happening, Wondra claims, he was a passive observer. “He is always consistent about the fact that he had nothing to do with what [the others] were involved in, and he was horrified by what he was seeing,” his defense wrote in their motion. “It may offend the moral or ethical code we feel we should have toward our fellow human beings, particularly a child. However, as offended or as horrified as we may be, and as wholly violative of our sense of outrage as his lack of action incites, Mr. Wondra still, legally, had no obligation to act.” Because Wondra was not a mandated reporter, his defense maintains, he had no legal responsibility to intervene or alert the police about what was going on.
Despite the defendant’s descriptions of what transpired, no DNA or physical evidence was found linking Michael to the Wondras, even after a full excavation of the couple’s property. A live scent K-9 tracked Michael’s scent to the Wondras’ home, but was unable to locate further evidence. In their motion, totaling more than 500 pages, Wondra’s defense attorneys emphasized a lack of physical or forensic evidence tying their client to Michael’s disappearance and death.
“In sum, 10 witnesses testified for the prosecution at the preliminary hearing, and not one of them could testify with certainty to what has happened to Michael Vaughan, and he has never been found. We know that he disappeared on July 27, 20221, and that he is presumed to be dead,” the defense argued. “Beyond that, there is simply no evidence.”
Wondra’s defense also called into question a tactic investigators used to gather evidence in the case. A letter found in Wondra’s cell after he was charged appeared to be addressed to the Vaughan family and was the beginning of an apology. Nicknamed the “Thanksgiving Apology Letter,” Wondra’s defense said that after officers found the note, which appeared to be “a work in progress,” they were instructed to return the letter to the cell “to see if Mr. Wondra would finish the letter.”
Wondra’s trial, scheduled to start in late September, has been moved from Payette County to Canyon County, Idaho. He is due back in court for a status conference on July 14.
