CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – For many, the Chinese restaurant at the corner of a shopping center on Needmore Road is just another place to get their favorite Asian cuisines. But for Rachael Stephens, it’s the place where her son clocked in to work, and never clocked out.
On Dec. 2, 2020, at approximately 12:45 p.m., officers responded to the King Mao Chinese restaurant on Needmore Road where an armed robbery resulted in the death of an employee, 28-year-old Seth Stephens. The suspect fled and remained at large for almost two years. During the course of the investigation, police arrested Jaelyn Gant, 31, and extradited him to the Montgomery County Jail on Nov. 9, 2022.
Gant had been charged with first-degree murder and other robbery-related charges. On Friday, Aug. 23, the jury found him guilty of the lesser second-degree murder on count 1, and guilty as charged of first-degree murder in perpetration to commit a crime on count 2, plus other charges.
Feelings of colors
“He (Seth) was a wild child,” Rachael told Clarksville Now. “When he loved you, he loved you hard.”
Seth’s sister, Hannah Stephens, agreed saying her brother was a funny “hot mess” who would give the shirt off his back to help someone in need. According to Seth’s mother and sister, when he wasn’t fishing with his friends, Seth lived and breathed video games.
Growing up, his family said that Seth was socially awkward and different from other kids. As a toddler, Seth would describe his feelings with colors.
“For instance, when Seth loved me and was happy and we were giggling and playing, he would lean over and give me a kiss and say, ‘Momma that’s a yellow kiss,’ or ‘that’s a red kiss,'” Rachael recalled fondly. “One day he was sitting on the couch and I said, ‘What’s the matter baby?’ Because his face, he just looked so sad, and he said, ‘Momma I just feel so pale today.'”
Throughout his life, Seth struggled with his mental health. His family said he was extremely bright, able to perform long division and understand fractions by the first grade but had exhibited some behavioral issues that they tried to diagnose and treat. Hannah said that her brother was bullied in school because of his differences, but it wasn’t until he was an adult and had a child with autism did Seth and his family realize he had been displaying symptoms of autism or Aspergers.
“Seth did struggle,” Hannah said. “Throughout all of that, he was still Seth. He fought hard for those that he loved and did his best to pour into his family…The passion that he had for his son, my mom, and our family – that part never changed.
“I still remember our very last conversation,” Hannah recalled. “We were in his car, and he was in tears over the fact that he was trying so hard to get over this stuff, get out of trouble, and do better with his life. His exact words were, ‘My brain is just wired different, and I don’t know what to do.'”
IHOP to King Mao
The morning of Dec. 2, 2020, started off as a warm and beautiful December day, Rachael and Hannah were on their way to IHOP, bantering about taking the route to the restaurant through Needmore.
As they approached the New King Mao, they glanced over out of habit, expecting to just see his car, but found police and law enforcement everywhere. In a moment of panic, they pulled into the Home Depot parking lot, and Rachael was out of the car and sprinting over before the car even stopped, shouting for Seth.
“I sat in the car and immediately tried to call Seth’s phone on repeat,” Hannah recalled. “Next thing I know, I hear an officer yelling, ‘who is Hannah Stephens? She’s calling his phone.'”
Hannah said there were people everywhere as she raced over and began asking questions about her brother. An officer, who had just arrived on the scene, escorted them over to a nearby area where the employees were at to try and locate Seth and asked a visibly shaken, young female employee if she knew Seth and where he was.
“The officer asked her if she knew Seth Stephens and she said ‘yes.’ And he goes, ‘Well, where is he?’ And she said, ‘He’s at the hospital,'” Rachael said. “Immediately, the officer knew who Seth was and he put his hands on my arm and my back and said, ‘Let’s go, I’m going to take you to our lead investigator.”
Hannah said the captain escorted them back to their car and sat them down and told them that there had been a robbery and Seth had been killed.
“The scream that my mom let out, I hope no one ever has to hear their family go through something like that.”
Testifying in court
Police were trying their hardest but with COVID at its peak and the lack of evidence at the time, Seth’s family had been warned that this could be a cold case.
In March of 2021, however, the family got the call they had been waiting on: Police finally had a suspect.
Rachael told Clarksville Now that the day she got the news about Jaelyn Gant’s arrest, she had opened up her bible and landed on the passage she grew up hearing as a little girl, Numbers 32:23, “Your sin will find you out.”
On Aug. 19, the Stephens family said they tried to keep an open mind as they walked into the courtroom and saw Gant for the first time. Hannah said she watched Gant snicker at them as they tried to keep it together during the autopsy report, occasionally winking and making faces at them and the court officers.
“When I saw him and how he reacted to us, my daughter, and the bailiff? How cocky and arrogant he was? I thought, ‘This man has the devil all up in him,” Rachael said.
When the verdict was finally read, Rachael let out visibly relaxed and Hannah said she felt elation unlike anything she’d ever experienced. After four years, Seth had justice.
‘Think of the joy’
“When we laid Seth to rest, I promised him I would speak his name every day,” Rachael said. Even though the trial is over, and Gant was found guilty, Rachael will continue praying for Gant and hopes he finds peace in God and repents.
If it weren’t for Hannah and her children, Rachael says she might have died that day with Seth. It was through them and her ironclad faith that she was able to push through the pain and make it to this point.
To the next family waiting on their day in court, Rachael says to “think of the joy.” She advises those families to remember the person they lost with happiness every moment that they can and carry the joy of their memory in their hearts.
“Seth was in a place where he loved and he loved the people he worked for, and he died trying to save the place,” Rachael said. “I can’t feel bad about that. I can’t feel bad that my son went down doing something good for someone else.”
“My boy did a good thing, and he died doing a good thing.”