Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992 TAG: 9202010313
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
LAWYER: CONFESSION OF PREMEDITATION A LIE
Kenneth Stewart, plagued with sadness and remorse, was so eager to die that he claimed to have planned the killings of his wife and baby, Stewart's defense attorney said Friday.After discussions with his attorneys, Stewart realized that premeditation was a legal requirement for getting the death penalty, Public Defender Webster Hogeland said Friday.
So, Hogeland said, Stewart lied and told investigators he had done just that.
His September confession - which referred specifically to premeditation - in the Mother's Day slayings of Cynthia Stewart and 5-month-old Jonathan Stewart "came out of his deep depression and remorse," Hogeland said.
"It is our position that the killings were not premeditated."
In earlier statements to investigators, Stewart admitted being inside in his family's Huddleston farmhouse with a pistol and then being rejected by his estranged wife. After that, though, he blacked out, he had said.
Hogeland spoke outside Bedford County Circuit Court on Friday, following a pretrial hearing in the case in which Stewart stands charged with capital murder, murder and two firearms violations.
He could face the death penalty if convicted in the trial, which is set to begin Tuesday.
Asked whether Stewart still wants the death sentence as he did a few months ago, Hogeland said, "He goes back and forth on that."
"I have never seen anyone, in the years that I've been a lawyer, with that kind of remorse," Hogeland said.
Defense co-counsel Steven Grant argued Friday that Stewart's September confession should not be heard by jurors.
Stewart's attorney was not contacted when he made the confession and an investigator made Stewart a "promise" during the conversation, Grant told Circuit Judge William Sweeney.
But Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney James Updike argued that Stewart - not police officers - initiated the jailhouse conversation in September. And, Updike said, Stewart was given no promises.
Only bits of the brief confession were made public at the Friday hearing.
Sweeney has yet to rule on the defense motion, but has ruled that an earlier incriminating statement by Stewart can be considered at trial.
The defense attorneys also made motions - routine in death-penalty cases - to dismiss the capital murder indictment and to prohibit imposition of the death penalty.
By allowing "state-sponsored homicide," Virginia was behaving like Iran, Iraq, Libya, Indonesia and South Africa, Hogeland said.
"I question whether that's the kind of company the Commonwealth of Virginia wants to find itself in," he said.
Denying the motions, Sweeney said he had heard them before.
"I feel I am bound by the clear rulings by the Virginia Supreme Court," Sweeney said.
Stewart, 37, is expected to enter a plea Tuesday.
If he pleads not guilty, a jury will hear evidence and arguments. If Stewart is found guilty, the jury would hear more evidence to determine what sentence he should receive - life in prison or the death penalty.
If, however, Stewart pleads guilty, Sweeney would determine the sentence.
The last time a Bedford County defendant pleaded guilty to capital murder with no prosecution agreement, Sweeney sentenced him to death.
In 1989, Joseph John Savino pleaded guilty to capital murder in the stabbing and beating death and robbery of his homosexual lover.
Sweeney, who at that time said death sentences should be "reserved for the worst cases," sentenced Savino to the electric chair.
Savino is on death row while his case goes through the appeals process.
Stewart's attorneys would not say Friday how he will plead.