Warrant reveals new details about York woman’s deadly stabbing

The woman found dead outside a home in western York County on Monday was stabbed to death, according to an arrest warrant.

Jessica Pittman Stewart, 30, of Meadow Road in York, was found dead Monday in the back yard of a York County home at 14088 W. Highway 55 between Clover and Blacksburg, , officials said.

Steven Tyler Benfield, 35, has been charged with murder and was being held Tuesday in the York County detention center. His bond was denied.

An arrest warrant for Benfield states he killed Stewart by “stabbing and cutting her to death.”

It’s not clear what the relationship between Benfield and Stewart was, but Trent Faris, a spokesman for the York County Sheriff’s Office, said Benfield lived at the S.C. 55 home and Stewart did not.

Deputies responded to the home about 10 a.m. Monday to help paramedics with a woman who was unconscious and not breathing, according to the incident report. Three witnesses were there when officers arrived, and Benfield was sitting inside an ambulance.

Benfield, who appears to have a bandage over his left eye in his booking photo, was taken to Piedmont Medical Center to be treated for injuries, the report states. It does not indicate how he was injured.

Forensic investigators were at the home Tuesday to piece together what led up to Stewart’s death, Faris said. Additional charges against Benfield could be pending.

Benfield has a criminal record dating back to 1997. He had his first felony conviction for burglary at age 17, and in 2002 was sentenced to three years for forgery, prescription fraud and assault. Benfield has other felony convictions on his record for multiple counts of lottery conspiracy, burglary, grand larceny, drug distribution and malicious injury to property.

This story was originally published August 11, 2015 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Warrant reveals new details about York woman’s deadly stabbing."