THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509280372
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: THE EXECUTION OF DENNIS STOCKTON
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: JARRATT, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Editor's note: In the hours before Dennis Stockton's execution, Wilma Arnder - mother of murder victim Kenny Arnder - shared her thoughts about the past 17 years and the man convicted of killing her son. On Wednesday, she and her three grown children apparently were among the witnesses to Stockton's execution.
For Wilma Arnder, the hardest part has been waiting to see justice, ``not knowing if he'd ever be executed for what he'd done, whether he'd have to pay for it.''
Arnder, 65, said she had only a couple of brief conversations with Dennis Stockton. But she remembers them and the events surrounding her 18-year-old son Kenny's death as if they were last summer, not July 1978.
She remembers Kenny leaving with Stockton on July 20, headed for Kibler Valley, a recreation area in Virginia, and near their home in Mount Airy, N.C. The next time Arnder and Stockton talked was when they passed on the road as Arnder returned from searching for her son.
``He stopped and wanted to know if we'd heard anything from Kenny,'' she said. ``He said he'd looked everywhere he knew to look. He just looked so guilty. You could just tell by the way he acted.''
At that time, her son was only missing. She would not find out until July 25 that he had been murdered, when his body was found in a shallow grave.
Over the years, Arnder has prayed for guidance.
``I prayed that if (Stockton) didn't do it, something would come out and we'd know, but I prayed if he did do it that he'd have to answer for it,'' she said. ``There is just no evidence that he didn't do it.''
Arnder is not impressed by any of the last-minute evidence offered by Stockton's defense lawyers. She believes Randy Bowman's original testimony that he heard Stockton accept $1,500 from Tommy McBride to kill Arnder over a soured drug deal.
Bowman was the sole witness who linked Stockton to the contract killing and made the crime a capital offense, punishable by death. In April of this year, Bowman recanted his testimony in an interview with a Virginian-Pilot reporter, then switched his story back when visited by two investigators.
``There's no doubt whatsoever that Stockton is the killer,'' Arnder said. ``He's a cold-blooded killer who has no conscience.''
For the past 17 years, Arnder's waking hours have been occupied with thoughts of her son's violent death.
``I think about it every day, every night,'' she said. ``I guess I cried for two years every day. When he first got killed what bothered me the most was the last minutes of Kenny's life, and he thought Dennis was his friend and he didn't have any other friend there to help him.''
Arnder thinks it's especially sad that Stockton would kill for money.
``I just think it's sad he led the life he did, a whole life of crime,'' she said. ``Dennis keeps putting in the paper that he's sorry I hate him. I'm sorry that he's the kind of person he is. I hate the devil and I feel like he's about as close as a person can get to being the devil. I feel like if he's executed, there's going to be other lives saved.''
Yet Stockton's death by lethal injection is easy compared to the death he imposed on her son, who was shot between the eyes and then had his hands cut off, Arnder says.
When the state began allowing victims' families to witness executions, Arnder decided she wanted to see Stockton pay for his crime.
``I'm not going to take any rejoicing over seeing it done or anything,'' Arnder said. ``I just think that justice should be done.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Wilma
Arnder
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
Staff
Suzie Hudenberg, left, John Gallini, Chris Klug and Thomas Cleary,
all of Richmond's Peace Center/Pax Christi, hold a candlelight vigil
outside the Greensville Correctional Center Wednesday night. Their
prayers fell silent at 9 p.m. when Dennis Stockton was put to death
by lethal injection.
by CNB