Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995 TAG: 9509200069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE JACKSON LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The key prosecution witness in the capital murder case of Dennis Stockton - sentenced to death for the murder of 18-year-old Kenneth Arnder in Patrick County - told two women that he murdered Arnder and bragged to his teen-age son that he killed a boy with the help of some friends, affidavits claim.
The allegations - detailed in sworn statements by Randy G. Bowman's oldest son, 16-year-old Timothy Crabtree; ex-wife Patricia Ann McHone; and former friend Kathy Carreon - raise the possibility that Stockton may have spent the past 12 years on death row because of false testimony by the real killer.
Stockton is to be executed a week from today.
According to the affidavits:
In the summer of 1978, McHone accompanied Bowman to the house of another felon, Tommy McBride. She waited outside in their car while Bowman tried selling stolen goods to McBride.
``When he entered the car, he told me that Tommy offered him money to kill Kenny Arnder,'' McHone said. ``He added that Dennis Stockton said he would do it for the money. However, within a short time of that visit ... Randy came home one evening and told me that he had just killed Kenny Arnder.''
In October 1994, ``I was good friends with Randy Bowman, spending much time with him,'' Carreon said in her statement. ``During that winter Randy told me that he killed Kenny Arnder with the help of two friends.''
From December 1994 to April 1995, Timothy Crabtree - who is now adopted - visited with Bowman, his biological father. During that time, Bowman ``told me many stories about people he beat up or about people he killed,'' the teen's affidavit said. ``I also read about people he hurt from a journal he kept in a composition book. He never mentioned names.
``He told me of one incident where he killed a boy and disposed of the body with the help of some friends. He showed me where they left the body and I remember it was near a stream in or near Mt. Airy, N.C. He said this happened before I was born.'' Arnder was killed in July 1978, shortly before the son was born.
The affidavits were filed Tuesday with the state Supreme Court, along with a plea for a new hearing on the evidence. Stockton's lawyers asked for a stay of execution so the court could have time to consider Stockton's appeal.
``It is the first time the state Supreme Court will have considered whether it is constitutional to execute an innocent person,'' said Steve Rosenfield, Stockton's lawyer.
Stockton's execution is coming down to the wire. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal.
On Tuesday, Stockton's lawyers said they would appeal again to federal court or to the U.S. Supreme Court if the state Supreme Court did not grant relief. After that, Stockton's last chance will be a clemency plea to Gov. George Allen.
Even with this new evidence, Stockton probably will not get a new hearing. According to state law, new evidence can be introduced only within 21 days of conviction. It is a law that has led experts to call Virginia the worst state in the nation for a lack of due process protection - even when there is considerable doubt about an inmate'sa prisoner's guilt.
On Tuesday, Patrick County Commonwealth's Attorney Alan Black called the affidavits ``uncorroborated statements.'' When asked whether he planned to issue a search warrant for Bowman's journal, described in the son's affidavit, Black answered, ``Nobody's coming to my office requesting action.''
According to Rosenfield, the witnesses did not come forward sooner because the state refused to provide Stockton's lawyers with an investigator. But more important, he said, was their fear of Bowman, currently free on $1,000 bond while awaiting trial for burglary.
McHone's statement was an extended narration of terror. ``I am trying to relocate in order to assure my safety ...'' her affidavit said. ``I am also upset at the possibility that an innocent man will be executed.''
From the beginning, Bowman, now 40, was the heart of the state's case against Stockton. Arnder was shot in the head in July 1978 and his hands hacked off above the wrists, a sign that the killing was drug-related, police said. His body was found near Mount Airy.
Virginia authorities filed murder charges against Stockton in 1982. According to the state, Stockton killed Arnder in Patrick County, then moved his body across the state line. No physical evidence linked Stockton to Arnder or the murder to Virginia, but Bowman testified in 1983 that he was at McBride's house when he heard Stockton agree to kill Arnder for $1,500. Bowman said the murder was over a soured drug deal.
Bowman was the only witness who said he heard the deal. Because he said it was murder-for-hire, prosecutors sought the death penalty.
This spring, Bowman told a reporter for the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk that he never heard Stockton take the deal. But a month later, he signed an affidavit claiming he never recanted.
Stockton has consistently maintained his innocence. The Roanoke Times and the Virginian-Pilot have been publishing Stockton's account of his criminal past and his years on death row.
by CNB