THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 26, 1995 TAG: 9504260454
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MOUNT AIRY, N.C LENGTH: Long : 185 lines
The key prosecution witness in the capital murder case of Dennis W. Stockton - sentenced to death in 1983 for the murder-for-hire of a teenager in Southside Virginia - has changed his story, claiming he did not hear Stockton take the deal that led to his conviction and sent him to death row.
The apparent recantation of Randy G. Bowman, 40, comes as Stockton's appeals have nearly run their course and he faces imminent execution in Virginia's death chamber. Next Wednesday is the deadline for Stockton's lawyers to file their plea for a final review of his case by the U.S. Supreme Court. After that, Stockton's last option is to ask Gov. George F. Allen for clemency.
The prosecutor in the 1983 case says that even though he is skeptical of Bowman's belated change of heart, the case should be reinvestigated and Stockton should not be executed until questions are answered.
From Virginia's death row, Stockton, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence for 12 years, said he expects an execution date to be set for mid- to late summer.
Now 54, Stockton gained notoriety after chronicling the escape in 1984 of six death row inmates from Mecklenberg Correctional Center.
He was charged in 1982 with the 1978 murder of Kenneth Wayne Arnder, 18, whose body was found near Mount Airy. Arnder was shot in the head and his hands were hacked off above the wrists. Arnder's mother said she last saw her son alive with Stockton.
In 1982, authorities in Patrick County filed murder charges against Stockton. According to the state, Stockton killed Arnder in Patrick County, Va., then moved his body across the state line. No physical evidence linked Stockton to Arnder or the murder to Virginia, and no weapon was found.
But Anthony Giorno, the assistant commonwealth's attorney who tried the case, had a witness: Bowman, a small-time felon who testified he was at the house of Tommy Lee McBride when he heard Stockton agree to kill Arnder for $1,500.
Bowman testified that McBride, another felon, wanted Arnder killed because of a soured drug deal. McBride, Stockton and others Bowman said were present at the meeting denied that it ever occurred.
Giorno was able to seek the death penalty because of Bowman's claim that it was a contract killing. Bowman was the only witness who said he heard the deal. He also said he overheard Stockton admit the killing in a North Carolina holding cell, an assertion Stockton has denied.
Yet last Thursday, Bowman told a reporter during an interview in his apartment that he never heard Stockton accept such a deal.
``I don't know if they (McBride and Stockton) made a deal,'' Bowman said. ``I was in there to sell something. The subject came up . . . how he (McBride) would like to have him dead, so I'm out of there. I've never said I heard - I didn't hear Stockton say, `I'm going to do it.' ''
Questioned several times about the apparent contradictions between his 1983 testimony and his new claim, Bowman repeatedly said he left immediately after McBride made the offer.
At one point he said, ``I don't recall hearing Stockton make (the deal) - it's been several years.'' Later, he added, ``I left. . . . I never heard Dennis take the deal.''
Giorno, now an assistant U.S. attorney in Roanoke, said Monday he was skeptical ``of someone who changes their story 13 years after the fact . . . Up to this point, Randy Bowman has been steadfast and consistent in what he has said.''
Yet Giorno added that Bowman's apparent change of heart gave him pause.
``Certainly the case should be reviewed,'' he said. ``It may impugn the murder-for-hire aspect. If it takes additional time to conduct a review, we should do that. . . .
``The public's confidence in the entire justice system suffers if there's a perception Stockton is being unjustly sentenced to death. We can't afford that. I think this should be looked at by someone in the attorney general's office.''
Don Harrison, spokesman for Attorney General James Gilmore, said Tuesday his office would not comment until they ``see something official'' from Stockton's lawyers.
Stockton's lawyers said they will file that official action next Wednesday when petitioning the Supreme Court to review Stockton's case. They said that, at the very least, they hope to win Stockton a new trial on charges of first-degree, and not capital, murder.
``Randy Bowman has never had any credibility,'' said Steve Rosenfield of Charlottesville, one of Stockton's attorneys. ``This latest information surprises us only in the sense that it has now become so apparent that Bowman would not know the truth if it bit him. His recantation would support our contention that . . . Bowman may very well have provided information that he thought was salable to the state.''
The question of Bowman's veracity has been central to Stockton's claim of innocence since his conviction, court records show. Although circumstantial evidence by three other witnesses could have brought Stockton to trial on first-degree murder charges, it was Bowman's tale of the $1,500 deal that elevated the charges to capital murder, Stockton's lawyers have said.
Stockton, now 54, was no angel himself. Before his 1982 charge for killing Arnder, his record was peppered with burglary, forgery, weapons and drug charges. He has confessed to the June 1979 killing of Ronnie Lee Tate, which Stockton said was self-defense. Stockton was never charged in that case.
Soon after Stockton's 1983 capital conviction, questions of fairness arose. In a 1984 civil case challenging Patrick County jail conditions, two inmates testified that Bowman bragged to them about lying in Stockton's trial.
Inmate Frank Cox testified, ``Randy . . . did tell me in so many words that he lied on Dennis, because he said, `I hate that son of a bitch. He's a queer.' ''
Cleveland Junior Martin, another inmate, testified that he, too, had spoken with Bowman. ``I can remember one instance when he said he would - well, not in these exact words, but what it amounted to was he would say anything for anybody if the money was right. . . .' ''
Last week, Bowman denied this accusation, claiming that Cox and Martin lied. ``They moved into a cell with Stockton, became friends with him,'' he said. ``They was trying to help him out.''
Also, in a 1986 prison interview with The Mount Airy News, Stockton named a third person who allegedly heard Bowman say he lied during Stockton's trial.
``Mike Tate got out of prison in 1985 and my brother was auditing The Pantry at Dobson, North Carolina,'' Stockton told a reporter. ``Mike walked in and told Doug that he'd just got out of prison and said that Bowman was down there bragging about how he had lied on me. And Doug told me that Mike said that Randy said that he got some money out of it.''
In 1989 and 1990, Stockton's lawyers received evidence that Giorno may have promised Bowman a deal in exchange for testimony - information that never made it into Stockton's trial. Affidavits by two former Patrick County Sheriffs' officials showed that Bowman was upset ``because promises allegedly made to him were not kept.'' Bowman allegedly wanted a sentence reduction or to be moved to another prison in exchange for his testimony, but was upset when he didn't get it.
Two weeks before Stockton's trial, Bowman wrote a letter from prison in North Carolina to Jay Gregory, now Patrick County's sheriff, in which he said: ``I'm writing you to let you know that I'm not going to court unless you can get this 6 or 7 months I've got left cutoff where I don't have to come back to prison.''
Gregory and Giorno have said that no secret deals were cut with Bowman for his testimony.
Court records show that Bowman received lenient treatment in Surry County's courts.
In August 1982, a stolen-property charge against Bowman was dropped 17 days after he testified in Stockton's preliminary hearing. After that, he received minimal sentences for repeat offenses.
His most recent charges were for threatening to kill his mother and a next-door neighbor. Originally sentenced to 179 days in jail, he appealed and took a plea agreement that reduced that time to 30 days, 17 of which he served, according to court records and Bowman.
Thursday, Bowman denied ever making any deals with Patrick County officials. He said that although the letter to Gregory looked like his writing, he never wrote it. Contrary to court records, Bowman said he served every day of his sentences.
``Nobody ever promised me we'll do this or that,'' he said. ``I remember getting mad because they wouldn't take me back to North Carolina. . . . I just got hassle for testifying against Tommy McBride. Nothing good came to me after that trial.''
Bowman said he was in prison in North Carolina when Surry County officials approached him about the Arnder killing. ``My name came up. . . . I don't know how. Maybe they talked to my ex-wife, Pat McHone. . . . The way the Surry County officer was talking to me, I got the idea I could be charged, so I told what I knew.''
Yet, according to Bowman, ``the only thing I was involved in was such a little bit,'' maintaining that his testimony could not have convicted Stockton. ``What I heard wasn't a lot,'' he said.
``I don't believe nobody knows the whole truth - I don't know if Dennis got a fair trial,'' he said. ``I wouldn't pull the switch on him. He might be guilty or he might not.''
Stockton's voice quivered during a phone interview Tuesday when a reporter read him Bowman's words. He is in Powhatan Correctional Center.
``I've said all along that the first time I ever saw Randy Bowman or heard his name was when he walked into my probable cause hearing on Aug. 17, 1982,'' he said. ``That date is seared into my brain. Everything Bowman said on the witness stand was a lie. . . .''
``Why did Bowman change his story now?'' Stockton asked. ``When you're telling the truth, 15 years can pass and you can remember what you said. But if you're telling a lie you forget what you said tomorrow.
``I've questioned God about it many times,'' he said. ``It's God at work. . of Randy Bowman coming forward and saying that he lied.
``Whatever the outcome, it'll be God's will be done,'' Stockton added. ``The bottom line is that when it's Dennis Stockton's day to stand in judgment, murder-for-hire will not be something I'll have to answer for.''
``I read this in the Bible a long time ago, and have always kept it,'' he said, quoting Proverbs 22:12: ``The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the faithless.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
``Everything Bowman said on the witness stand was a lie,'' said
Dennis Stockton, left, who says he first saw Randy Bowman at a 1982
hearing.
KEYWORDS: MURDER FOR HIRE DEATH ROW CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
VIRGINIA EVIDENCE SHOOTING by CNB