Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060366
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
PLAN WAS SUICIDE, DEFENSE CONTENDS
Kenneth Stewart drove to the farmhouse of his estranged wife and their baby son last Mother's Day to visit them one final time, a defense lawyer said Wednesday.Stewart's plan had actually been to commit suicide, defense attorney Steve Grant said.
"He couldn't stand it any longer," Grant said of Stewart's torment over his breakup with his wife.
When Stewart got to the Huddleston house with his suicide weapon hidden in his boot, though, something else happened, Grant said Wednesday during opening arguments in Stewart's trial for the shooting slayings of his wife, Cindy, and their baby.
"He and Cindy got into an argument," Grant said. "He was crying. She rejected him and then, we don't know what happened. Kenny doesn't remember."
Grant described Stewart as a "man who realizes he is ultimately responsible for the deaths of his family."
Still, Grant told the jurors, there's plenty of "reasonable doubt" about what happened that night - since even Stewart isn't sure.
And, Grant reminded them, the prosecution must prove that Stewart's acts that night were premeditated in order to convict him of capital murder.
That, Bedford prosecutor James Updike told jurors during his opening argument Wednesday, is exactly what he will prove as he presents his evidence in the case during the next few days.
Stewart, furious at being banished from his wife's house and her life, decided to kill his family and leave a gruesome picture behind for the mother-in-law he hated, Updike told the jury.
Cindy Stewart, who didn't agree with her husband's ideas about spending money, had repeatedly refused to take him back, Updike said.
Instead, she was allying herself with her parents, who lived several miles away on Smith Mountain Lake, Updike said.
That only fueled Kenneth Stewart's anger, Updike said.
"Kenneth Stewart disliked his in-laws," said Updike. "Cindy had sided with her family, not her husband."
"He was presented with a dilemma and he was looking for a resolution," Updike said, his voice growing loud and angry. "He found one - a dastardly one indeed."
Updike alleged that Stewart stole a .25-caliber gun from a friend, stuck it in his boot and headed for the Stewarts' Huddleston farmhouse with murder in mind.
There, he shot his wife and baby in the head at such close range that gunpowder singed their skin, Updike said. The baby's body was placed in the arms of his mother on a bed.
Hours later, Cindy's mother, Ruth Schultz, discovered the bodies of her daughter and grandson.
"She sees a sight that she will never forget to her dying day - and one you will never forget," Updike said.
"It was a picture on Mother's Day for Mrs. Schultz . . . and we will establish that he wanted her to find it."
Testifying for the prosecution later Wednesday, Schultz wept as she described finding the bodies.
Cindy, Schultz's 34-year-old middle child, had been upbeat and bubbly when Schultz visited her early on May 12, Schultz said.
Later in the day, though, no one answered at the farmhouse when Schultz telephoned.
As the evening went on, Schultz got worried, knowing that feeding time for 5-month-old Jonathan had arrived and her daughter was always home for that.
Around 7 p.m., Schultz drove over to the house, she said.
On the first floor, she found blood covering her grandson's playpen and a partly cooked pork chop casserole in the cold oven.
"I got this sick feeling," Schultz told jurors, as she described walking up the stairs.
There, she found the bodies, already cold to the touch.
"I couldn't believe it. It was terrible," Schultz said.
Schultz apologized to jurors for crying. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just that it comes back to me - the picture - so clearly."