Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Killer hubby tells where he hid murdered wife in exchange for XBox in prison

Episode Date: October 30, 2018

A convicted killer husband leads detectives to his wife’s remains 8 years after her murder in exchange for an Xbox he can to play in while spending the rest of his life in prison. Nancy Grace looks at the latest developments in the murder of Venus Stewart with experts, including Dr. Brian Russell, a lawyer & psychologist, who also host of Investigation Discovery’s “Fatal Vows” series, Dr. Michelle DuPre, a South Carolina medical examiner and author of "Homicide Investigation Field Guide”, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan, and reporter Robyn Walensky, author of "Beautiful Life?: The CSI Behind the Casey Anthony Trial & My Observations from Courtroom Seat #1." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Do you know another parent or expecting parent? Are you wondering what can I give them as a gift? Don't give them another onesie. Don't give them a plastic toy or God forbid a toy gun that's just gonna end up in the garage. Give them something that matters and what matters the most is protecting their child.

What do you love most in the world? Your children. What will you do to protect them? Anything. I sat down with the smartest people I know in the world on matters of child safety, finding missing children, fighting back against predators. And what I learned is so important, powerful, and information so critical. I want you to have it. I want them to have it. Go to crimestopshere.com for a five-part series

with action information that you can use to change your life and protect your child. Payment starting $6.99. Give that as a gift, not another onesie. Find out how to protect your child when you're out at the mall or the store or the grocery, in the parking lot, at home. Find out about protection regarding babysitters and daycare, even online. I'd rather have that any day of the week than a plastic toy or, God forbid, a toy gun. Join Justice Nation. Go to crimestopshere.com. Goodbye, friend. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Where is Venus Stewart, a mother of two young children who were asleep in that home when she walked out to the mailbox to just leave a letter for the mailman?

To Natisha Lance, joining us tonight from Atlanta, I want everybody to really get the layout of this home because the mailbox was literally at the end of the driveway, right? Explain the scene for us. Right, Jean. And this is so scary because how many people go out to their mailbox every day to mail a letter? The mailbox was just 80 feet away from this house. And what the parents have told us in the past is that the house next door was 90 feet away

and the other house was just 24 feet away. And then there was this tarp that was under the boat and then there was also a propane tank that also had a footprint on it and police believe once they got to the scene that it appeared as if Venus must have been struggling and that she was kicking and that she was pulled and that her footprint was able to leave a mark on that propane tank. You are hearing my fill-in guest host on HLN, Jean Kassouris, as she is discussing the disappearance of a beautiful young girl. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. What happened in the case of this beautiful woman, Venus Stewart? Joining me,

an all-star lineup, Stephen Lampley, former detective, Raymond Giudice, renowned Atlanta defense attorney, Dr. Judith Joseph, New York psychiatrist, and joining me right now, Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter and author of Beautiful Life, the CSI behind the Casey Anthony trial. Robin, let's start at the beginning. How did Venus Stewart go missing? Well, Nancy, she was living with her parents in West Michigan. She's a mom of two girls, and she was going through a bitter divorce. So instead of living with her estranged husband, she went to live with her parents. And one morning, as you do, you're in your pajamas and you go out to get the mail,

and she was never seen again. She went to go get the mail and was never seen again. Listen. Leticia, where was that propane tank in relation to the mailbox with the footprint? The propane tank is actually closer to the home. The boat that is next to it, over to the right, the tarp wrapper was underneath that boat. The mailbox down the driveway, 80 feet away from that, is where Venus was apparently when she was taken by surprise and then abducted. To Stephen Lampley, former detective, how do you go missing? I remember

this case so well, what had happened, and right now there's a major, major break in the case. Stephen Lampley, how does a woman go to the mailbox and never come back? Well, she walked out to the mailbox like anybody else would do, but of course the perpetrator who was there waiting on her snatched her up, and she disappeared from that point on forever. Interesting that you said the perp was waiting on her there. That suggests a degree of planning. Raymond Giudice, you have defended and I have prosecuted a million homicides.

All right? A million. There's two choices. Either Lampley, Stephen Lampley, detective is correct, someone was waiting on her and it was a trap, or it was a crime of convenience. What about it, Raymond? I think our detective is spot on.

Realistically, in most homicides, there really are only a couple of options. It's very rarely really stranger on stranger unless it's an armed robbery at a gas station that goes bad. You just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. This had all the earmarks of a predator who was physically or psychologically close to this nice lady. Here in St. Joseph County, investigators have pounced on every tip, in part because so few tips have come in, fewer than six, in 10 days. Now police are looking for this man. Two witnesses spotted him at nearby Adams Lake the night before Stewart disappeared. He was wet and approached the witnesses for a cigarette. I mean right now with this case we have so few clues to go on we're not going to discount anything. The lead was

strong enough that police conducted an all-out search of the lake using sonar equipment. The search turned up nothing but there are possibilities. They have yet to access a flooded area near the lake. That was our friend Ann Sheever of 24-Hour News at WOOD-TV8. And they have followed up so many leads. To Dr. Judith Joseph, New York psychiatrist, joining us. That's got to be so hard for the victim's family. This particular victim is Venus Stewart, just absolutely a gorgeous young girl, a mother who goes missing from her

parents' home. So every time you get a lead, then you get excited that you may even find your daughter or your loved one alive, only to have ponds drained and lakes dredged, and you get a big fat zero. That's to destroy venus's family every time it happens absolutely the emotional roller coaster is an understatement here getting your hopes up and have them crushed over and over again it's just re-traumatizing this family is really living a nightmare day in and day out day in and and day out. Robin Walensky, I want to talk about how Venus actually goes missing. I'm looking at a photo right now. She's a mother of two children.

And I'm looking at her smiling in a family photo, and it reminds me so much of in my little hometown of Macon, Georgia, in my little United Methodist Church, they take directory photos like every three or four years, okay? And it's the family, and they have these particular posts. Oh, Jackie Howard in the studio is shaking her head yes. Long story short, they take this picture, and we even got it when we were growing up my mom had it an oil painting so to speak done it's really not they kind of like brush over the photo I think and they frame it

and they give it to you we have it hanging up well of course I did the same thing with the children but that's what this picture looks like and it it just, to think of her so happy. And now, over all this time, we've been dredging lakes and searching ponds and wilderness looking for her. And this family is being dragged along for the ride. Nancy, she looks like the lady next door. Smiley, happy. You know what they say, a picture tells a thousand words. She looks like she couldn't be happier. She has two daughters. But you know what? There are police

reports where she accuses the husband of domestic violence. So clearly, you know, she might have been happy that she was a mom and her parents were alive and she, you know, could stay at their house and all of this. But there was something very, very bad and troubling going on behind the scenes in that home. Take a listen to this. They are also trying to identify tire tracks from a pickup spotted by a neighbor the morning of Stewart's disappearance. The neighbor reported seeing the truck in a vacant lot across from where Stewart disappeared. They have searched vehicles owned by Stewart's estranged husband, Doug Stewart, in Virginia and have not said if there has been any connection. The estranged husband is still considered a person of interest in the case. Last night,

he told News 8 he is hoping that his wife is found safely. Police say he has a solid alibi, but say relations between him and his wife have been contentious. Venus's father, Larry McComb, made the 911 call that morning. The vehicle is here, her kids are here, and she is gone. Okay. Have you tried calling her or anything? Yeah, we can't get hold of her. Larry also called his wife, Teresa, who was already at her restaurant job. Her co-workers tried to calm her down. And they said, oh, she probably just went around the block. And I just looked at her and said, get a grip.

My daughter doesn't do that stuff. And I said, I'm out of here. And I ran out the door, and I was shaking the whole way home. Venus Stewart first vanished on an April morning, April 26. Goes to the mailbox in her pajamas. We first featured it on the Nancy Grace Show on HLN. And at that time, it was getting very little coverage. How could a woman go missing at her own mailbox in her PJs?

Despite many, many searches, Venus's body had never been found. Until a major break in the case. The mother of two presumed dead. Many people looked at the husband. Why is it always that you look at the husband, the lover, the ex, the boyfriend first? Stephen Lampley, former detective, weigh in. Why? Well, it's usually, Nancy, as we heard earlier, it's usually a family member that is more likely to be the suspect in a homicide. So, and a lot of times with relationships such

as this one, there was a divorce pending. So, it's natural to first, let's eliminate the family members first and then go from there. You know, police always had an eye on Venus Stewart's estranged husband, Doug Stewart, and I'll tell you why. Raymond Giudice, a renowned defense attorney joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, in the weeks following Venus's disappearance, leaving behind two little children to be raised without their mother, police take a look at the husband in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. They take a look at Doug Stewart's truck and they find a receipt, a receipt for items that included a tarp and a shovel. Okay, Ray,

help me out. Why is it when a wife goes missing, the husband suddenly is out buying a tarp and a shovel or garbage bags, lots of them, industrial size, or he turns into a neat neck. Remember Scott Peterson suddenly decided for the first time in his life to mop and do the laundry right after Lacey goes missing. I mean, really, what is it about you guys, Ray Giudice? Your wife or girlfriend goes missing and suddenly you want to do the laundry. You know, when you're under stress, one of the things you want to do is clean the house, clean the garage.

It happens to me all the time when I'm getting ready for a big trial. The stress makes me want to clean the refrigerator, even though I haven't done it. What you're getting at is this is the easiest way for law enforcement to start to both, as the detective said, either eliminate someone, which is part of their job to eliminate suspects, and they work from the inner circle to the outer circle. That's why the husband, in this case, is being called a person of interest. Yeah, he's a person of interest. He may have some information that leads to the culprits in this horrible crime. That's good detective work. But I'll bet if I could have a couple of years of going through this gentleman's records that he goes to Ace Hardware all the time and he goes to the Home Depot and Lowe's and he buys trash bags and tarps

to cover things when there's a hole in the roof and shovels to plant the azaleas in the backyard. These are common household supplies. But immediately, because you buy a bottle of bleach and a trowel, all of a sudden you're a murderer bleaching the body and digging a grave site. And that's just too easy and too trite to focus on those items. Let me throw you a softball, Ray Giudice. How come he, the husband, did not call 911? There is no handbook for when your loved one goes missing. Everybody thinks there's a pattern of behavior. Oh, you're going to do this, then you're going to do that, then you're going to pray, then you're going to have a rally, then you're going to hunt for, you know, round up people to search through the woods.

If you do those things, it looks suspicious. When you don't do those things, it looks suspicious. That's the problem that law enforcement tends to do is to focus on again these minor behavioral issues they're not relevant to evidence in a trial and in my opinion it's a behavior and that's that's the defense argument is going to be ladies and gentlemen of the jury there's 12 folks here all 12 would have a different response to this type of stress. Your loved one going missing.

Hey, listen. Listen, Chudiche. I don't have a problem with a man finally doing some housework for a big change. But why is it always coincidentally within 24 hours of your wife going missing? The reason I said it was a softball, Ray, is not only because you tuned up, second verse, same as the first, about play. There's no playbook for grief. All right, fine. But here's the easy answer.

They had such a bitter breakup. She had gone to live with her parents. So according to him, he wasn't on the spot. But then your backup argument, I guess, could be no playbook. To Dr. Judith Joseph, what do you make of it? Because, you know, I'm thinking, Dr. Joseph, of a particular guy I tried who murdered his wife. The fire trucks, you remember this case, Ray Giudice. The fire trucks roared up to their mansion. They were trying to get into the home.

They looked across the street, there he was, the husband, all laid out on the neighbor's front yard, a la Romanesque, he might as well have said, peel me a grape, and they talked to him for 15 minutes before he goes, oh yeah, my wife's in the house, just to make sure she was going to die, you know, don't tell him too soon she's in the house. So, you know, Dr. Judith Joseph, that guy aside, what is it about this no playbook for grief defense that so many defense lawyers tune up with? Because people in the jury box, they know that's not normal to, for instance, refuse to pay your wife's funeral bill, to never cry standing beside her dead body, to never try to revive her. No, that is, there may be no playbook, but that's just wrong,

Dr. Judith Joseph. Everyone does respond to grief differently. And I think that what people try to use as a defense is like the shock reaction, right? Oh, I was shocked and shocked. I was numb. So I think that's probably where that comes from. And what the other expert was mentioning earlier on the call was that the majority of these cases of homicide, female homicide, are related to a partner and an ex-partner. And that's why people look at family members. That's why people look at husbands or partners when someone is or goes missing. So, you know, it's true everyone does respond to grief in certain ways. However, people tend to have a bit more emotion when they truly miss the loved one that has gone missing. To Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com

investigative reporter. Now, this guy, the husband, Doug Stewart, has long, long maintained his innocence. But the reality is there was never a body. Now, a lot of people, hold on, Robin, read you to tell you a lot of people believe if you don't have a body, you can't prove a case. That is so not true. Remember the high profile case in Atlanta that I did a tiny bit of work on, tiny, tiny bit, where the kindergarten teacher went missing. We all knew she was dead. And bottom line, the district attorney, I kept saying, you got to indict the boyfriend. You got to indict the boyfriend, Mr. Slayton. He went, no, no, we're going to wait. We're going to wait. I'm like, wait for what? Long story short, they found her glass eyeball. A lot of people didn't even know

she had one fake eye from something that happened to her as a child. And it led to not her boyfriend, but a thug that just happened to see her jogging and abducted her and killed her. So, Ray Giudice, my point is that evidence does not always lead you to the boyfriend, the ex, or the husband. I think one of the things you're outlining is, and again, we both remember fondly Mr. Slayton, the district attorney of Fulton County here in Atlanta for years, but back in the 60s and 70s and maybe into the 80s, before the development and the really high use of technology and science and computers and cell phones, I think it was much harder to try a case from the prosecution's perspective without the body, because the body led backwards to the crime. I think one of the things that defense lawyers have to convince our clients in in these cases,

and this is the hardest conversation you'll ever have at the jail through three inches of plexiglass talking to your client, is, hey, they can prosecute you without the body. They've got the cell phone pings and your ATM receipts and there's a videotape from across the street surveillance camera. And what used to be called circumstantial evidence, which was more suspicious or just speculative, is now so airtight that it really surrounds the defendant. And even without the body, the state, if they do their job properly with good detective work and good forensic science, can really make a noose or a circle around the defendant. And a good closing argument with the right jury charges by the state, by the prosecution, can educate a jury how to convict without a body.

It takes good lawyering, and it takes good science and investigative tools. And I think those things are becoming more in vogue as we get much more science and many more lawyers now, younger lawyers who are grown up with technology and are much more facile in using that in trial. Listen to this. We've learned that police did find evidence after executing search warrants. They found blood stains in Douglas Stewart's car. They also found a receipt that Venus's father says was for a tarp and a shovel. But the key piece of evidence is missing. The woman who police say was abducted while collecting the mail. Do you know another parent or expecting parent? Are you wondering what can I give them as a gift?

Don't give them another onesie. Don't give them a plastic toy or, God forbid, a toy gun that's just going to end up in the garage. Give them something that matters, and what matters the most is protecting their child. What do you love most in the world? Your children. What will you do to protect them? Anything. I sat down with the smartest people I know in the world on matters of child safety, finding missing children, fighting back against predators. And what I learned is so important,

powerful, and information so critical. I want you to have it. I want them to have it. Go to crimestopshere.com for a five-part series with action information that you can use to change your life and protect your child. Payment starting $6.99. Give that as a gift, not another onesie. Find out how to protect your child when you're out at the mall or the store, the grocery, in the parking lot, at home. Find out about protection regarding babysitters and daycare, even online. I'd rather have that any day of the week than a plastic toy, or God forbid, a toy gun. Join Justice Nation. Go to crimestopshere.com. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Welcome back, everybody. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Stephen Lampley, Raymond Giudice, Dr. Judith Joseph, and Robin Walensky with me. Robin Walensky, it was just in the last days that there was a major, major break in the case. What happened, and how does an Xbox factor into the discovery of Venus Stewart's dead body? Well, Doug Stewart is behind bars for years, and clearly he's bored to death. And so he wants some favors. He wants to be able to go to his parents' funerals when they pass. And he wants to play Xbox, of course, as you would. And so the folks in the jail, they and the police, they feel that there's an opening here that he's willing to negotiate for favors and for goodies.

And so they agree to allow him to have a certain kind of Xbox that's not connected to the Internet. And it doesn't involve violent games in exchange for him leading them to where her body is buried. Well, I've heard it all to Stephen Lampley, former detective. A guy has been sitting there all this time, sitting on the location of the body of his children's mother this whole time. He's sitting there twiddling his thumbs. And now after all this time, he leads police to her body in exchange for an Xbox, Stephen Lampley. Well, actually, you have to go back. In the trial, he admitted on a daily basis,

this man played on his Xbox six to eight hours every day. So maybe that's a borderline addiction to the video game, but he sat there all this time without the ability. So, you know, hey, let's just swap out. I'll take an Xbox and I'll tell you where my wife's buried. Take a listen to this. Did you kill Venus Stewart? No, I did not.

Did you want to kill Venus Stewart? No. You meant for to kill Venus Stewart? No. You meant for her to be dead? What was that? Did you mean for Venus Stewart to be dead? No, I did not want her to die. Ricky Spencer told the packed courtroom that even though he wore Doug Stewart's clothes, slept in his bed, and used his credit cards to give his friend an alibi in Virginia for his wife's murder he kept hoping Stewart would change his mind okay dude it's done I was kind of shocked

to hear that I said what happened he said that he called the mailman. He had a package for her. And he jumped out, and he said that there was a scream. She only screamed once. And that he tried putting up a fight, but he was able to get in that head lock and a drop of blood came from her nose. He says after Stewart explained what happened, he hung up because Stewart said he had to go bury Venus's body. I told him, like, don't tell me where she is, dude, because I don't want to know. The only people that are going to know that I did any of this is you, me, my lawyer, and my parents. So you're hearing our friend at 24-Hour News, AWOOD-TV, Danny Carlson,

and you're also hearing Ricky Spencer, the main witness for the prosecution, so that's quite the line to draw, Ray Giudice. You've handled co-de defendants a lot of times where sure you'll do a cover for the killer you know he's killed his wife you know he got information to her that he had a pap a package was coming to her and then he waited for her to go outside to do her till her nose bled he knows she's dead but he goes but but don't tell me where the body is you know i'm all in but i'm going to keep my pinky toe out of this mess so he you know he probably did a deal in exchange for testimony oh absolutely i'm sure his counsel got some level of immunity

tentative plea agreement usually how this is done is not a promise by the district attorney, the prosecutor, but a, if you cooperate and tell the truth under oath and that's true, right? If you cooperate and tell the truth under oath, you get a deal. Stephen Lampley, according to what, what we're learning is that when he subdued her at her mailbox, she was just unconscious. She actually came to out in the woods, Stephen Lampley, former detective.

Can you imagine waking up all bloody in the woods and your ex-husband is standing over you about to kill you and dispose of your body? What a gruesome, horrific reality for this mom, Venus Stewart. Yeah, we now know that he parked across the street, and with the guise of coming out to get a package, he abducted her and then took her. Of course, it's my understanding that the homicide scene was the actual burial site where, ironically, Stewart cut wood back when he was 15 years old, and this was private property. So in keeping with a lot of homicides, he knew the area. So, yes, it had to have been horrific for her to wake up and know what's going to happen.

Terrible. To Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. So this convicted murderer sitting behind bars for killing his wife never tells anybody, even her parents, even her children, where mommy is so she can have a burial. But then they wave an Xbox under his nose and he goes, oh, sure, sure. I'll tell you where. Well, there goes his chance of an appeal right there because he's saying where the body is. Only the killer would know that.

So, Robin Walensky, where was the body? Well, it was in the location where he used to chop wood as a teenager. And believe this or not, he actually left, the homicide detectives say that he actually left like two wood stumps to mark the body. Like, was he ever going to go back there? It sort of leads you to think like, what's his thinking? You're actually marking the spot, you know, not with a grave, not with a grave stone, but with two pieces of wood. I mean, was he going to return back to the scene? Who knows? There's a level of arrogance though, Nancy, about this guy, where from behind bars, in addition to this whole Xbox and him wanting goodies and getting out to his parents' funeral someday, he also offers up to the homicide detectives, hey, use me for a homicide school training. I can get you some

information on the mind of a murderer. I'm going to, you know, let all my secrets go as to what I was thinking. To me, there's a level of arrogance in this guy. Oh, you know, you need to talk to me because to get into my mind because of the mind of a murderer. Let's teach that class. Yeah, let's teach that class. You know what? Maybe HBO or Netflix might want him. Take a listen to this. Venus and her two daughters, four and six, at the time of her disappearance, had moved back home to her parents' house from Virginia. On that April morning in 2010, Doug Stewart abducted Venus as she walked to the mailbox.

He buried her body in a remote area he knew because his father had a logging company and cut wood here. Stewart had little trouble directing police to the spot where he buried his wife. A specific piece of evidence from the original case was this blue tarp. And he had advised us that that was going to be inside the grave as well. And we located that. So that's what first led us to believe, yep, we're in the right spot here. We just have to keep going. We're going to find her.

I can't understand my mindset back then. It was, uh, it was almost like I was on a mission in the dark of night in late April, 2010, Doug Stewart left Virginia and set off for Michigan with a plan to set up his wife. He would ambush her at her parents' home. I did lie in wait. She did come out. I did put her in a choke maneuver. She passed out. Doug tricked her into coming outside on that cold Monday morning, called her, disguised his voice, told her there was a package waiting. She had no sooner stepped outside than Doug grabbed her by the neck. I sat there to uh staring at my best lap. Um I uh I didn't hav

Although Doug says he had no plan, he had already plotted her murder and found a plot in a very remote field to bury her body. Did you know this property? Was it in your mind? Is a possibility? Yes. From the very beginning I I had come here the night before. I had.

Plan this to be the spot. And that's where Venus met her demise. You are hearing the killer, the killer Doug Stewart on WWMT on their exclusive interview at the grave, at the burial spot. I wouldn't even call it a grave where this young mom had been buried and in the last days this horrific i don't even know the right word for this guy the husband doug stewart in exchange for an xbox after leaving this woman's children and her family hanging out there in the wind, wondering where her body was all this time, in exchange for an Xbox, he gives up her body. It's so overwhelming. What led to the murder?

Listen. Venus Stewart had a protection order against her husband, and her family says one week before her disappearance, a court awarded her full custody of the couple's two young children and demanded the father pay child support. This is a very complicated case and based because of the lack of any evidence that we have at the scene, we don't have much to go on. Wow. You know, all over a restraining order and child support to Raymond Giudice, renowned Atlanta defense lawyer, Ray Giudice. I've had many a criminal lawyer, defense lawyer, of course, who is used to representing murderers, child molesters, drug lords say, you know what? I'd rather represent a drug lord or a killer than

stick my hand in the middle of a divorce case it's like tearing apart two rottweilers would you agree or disagree totally agree uh absolutely because first of all in these divorce cases nobody is rational and now perhaps one party is much more irrational than the other, but there's very rarely one person 100% rational and the other emotional and the other calm, cool, and collected and just wants to get it over with. I will also tell you that if you go down to the marshal's office or the sheriff's office and say, would you rather serve a warrant on a drug possession case or a domestic violence case, nine out of 10 of them are going to say, oh, just give me the drug dealer. You know, they know the deal. I mean, divorced folks,

they're not afraid of the nine millimeter on the side of them or my taser. They're fighting and they'll fight me too. So it is, I'd rather just pick 12 on a homicide than pick 12 on a divorce case any day of the week. I don't know if you remember this case, Ray Giudice, but another domestic homicide case I handled. These two incredibly brilliant people, the man and the woman. I knew something was up when the district attorney, who was like a grandfather to me, Mr. Slayton, called me down. He said, I've got a friend. Turned out to be a partner in one of the biggest law firms in Atlanta. Daughter had been found committed suicide

the dad didn't believe it i'm on my own i'm on my way my foot's out the door well we got over there and she had ostensibly shot herself in the bed naked which you know women do not kill themselves naked nor shoot themselves in the head typically we found blood spatter under the pillow okay that was before henry lee spit out ketchup in the oj case and i'm like okay how did blood spatter get under her pillow that she's sleeping on okay this isn't right long story short the husband shot her and set it up to look like suicide but i can remember ray judice hiding outside some office park between the cars waiting for his friends to come out of their jobs to hit him with a subpoena dukes take him to get the letters he had been writing them things like hey stay cool and don't

shoot your wife ha ha ha dave yeah and you know we had money. I took my little self to Kinko's with my own little money and blew up every one of those letters, life-size, and put them all over the courtroom. My point is, you never know why. You know why he did it in his little pea brain? Because his wife had been flirting with somebody online they had never even met. It was just like, you know, talk online 8000 emails or text messages. Let's don't confuse anybody. You didn't handle him. You defended him. Let's just call it like it is. And I was paid to do so handsomely. My point is, I get to court and I say, now, wait a second. There's eight million people in metro Atlanta and you sent 8000 text messages to this after she's told you repeatedly, take a hike, go away, leave me alone. Don't move on, man.

Get on Match.com. There's lots of nice folks out there. Have a rational, reasonable, nice relationship. That you can stalk. Well, yes, that is true now. Thanks, Ray. Well, look, thanks. On behalf of all womankind, thanks a lot, Ray.

Hey, you know what? We're making light of a very, very serious situation here because it's just like gallows humor because it's just too much to take in that you would kill this gorgeous lady because you don't want to pay child support. I mean, you know what? Let's listen to the harsh

reality. Listen. I batted her arms down. She saw it coming and I batted him down with my right hand and I struck her with my left. And, uh, I, she didn't hit the ground before I started apologizing and I almost threw up. There was so much blood. It was the worst scene of my entire life. She didn't say anything. She collapsed down to the ground. 20 seconds later, her eyes closed. I didn't know what to do.

I can't believe I did what I did. I didn't know what to do. I can't believe I did what I did. I didn't know what to do. I can't believe I did what I did. Well, Stephen Lampley, as judges instruct juries all the time, the perpetrator may immediately regret the deed, but that does not negate the intent at the time of the incident. He had a perfect chance to turn back Stephen Lampley. He said he was in his truck looking down. This is before he disposed of her body completely, buried her out in the middle of a wooded area and put a stump on top of the dirt. Stephen Lampley, he had her in his truck. She was just unconscious. He said, I was looking down at my best friend. That would have been a perfect time to stop right there, Stephen Lampley. Why do people go forward when they know what they're doing is wrong, Stephen?

Well, he had an agenda, Nancy, from the very beginning. He wanted her dead, and yeah, maybe there was a slight bit of remorse, but the remorse was not going to get him what he was seeking. So, you know, you've got to go through with it at this point, which is exactly what he did. Well, Doug Stewart, he may have had an agenda. Well, now he's got an Xbox and a one-way ticket straight to hell. Good riddance, Doug Stewart, Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.