Murder trial shows glimpse of family issues
Mike Corn
August 6, 2009
The Hays Daily News (KS)
http://www.hdnews.net/Story/trial080609
WaKEENEY — A portrait of a family split apart by money quickly is being painted in the first-degree murder trial against David A. Stevenson.

But two scenarios are emerging.

Prosecutors sought to show that Stevenson had been manipulating his ailing mother to ensure he wasn’t being cut out as a beneficiary to the wealth that had been accumulated by his parents.

Stevenson, however, is trying to show he was a key contributor to his father’s farming operation in western Gove County.

Stevenson, 61, is charged with the May 13, 2008, murder of his father, Walter A. Stevenson, 85.

That family rift, notably between David Stevenson and his sister, Peggy Ricker, was on center stage this morning when Ricker was called to testify.

On Wednesday, a series of lawyers who were involved in the development of wills and trusts on the part of Walter and Bonny Stevenson were called to testify.

Starting out with a relatively straightforward trust, the elder Stevensons — with the aid of Ricker — ultimately sought to change its provisions to exclude David Stevenson as a trustee, but not remove him as a beneficiary. Bonny Stevenson balked at the move and refused to sign the document, retaining her own lawyer.

Ultimately, however, Walter Stevenson and Ricker approached a Dighton lawyer, again seeking to exclude David Stevenson.

Lawyer Dale Pike told of how Walter Stevenson said his wife was “writing checks that he didn’t approve of.” He said Bonny Stevenson had written checks of about $30,000 for David Stevenson.

“He basically wanted David out of the house,” Pike said of Walter Stevenson’s mission. “He wanted him out of the house.”

Pike said Walter Stevenson also wanted guardianship power for his wife, who at the time was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

They also talked of Walter Stevenson obtaining a protection from abuse order against his son.

Although Pike told of an altercation between David Stevenson and Peggy Ricker and then between David Stevenson and his father, he was unable to say when that might have occurred.

Along the way, Pike suggested Walter Stevenson transfer all of the cash in a checking account of a trust and into an account that only he had access to.

While defense attorney Paul Oller sought to question Pike about David Stevenson’s contributions to the farm operation, Pike said he was given the indication he did little.

“He didn’t seem to think David was doing anything on the farm,” Pike said of Walter Stevenson. “He gave me the idea that he was dead weight rather than helping out.”

“That’s when Peggy was in the room?” Oller asked.

“That’s correct,” Pike said.

In his opening statement, Assistant Attorney General Steven Karrer told of how witnesses and evidence would testify on Walter Stevenson’s behalf.

He also told of David Stevenson’s discovery of his father, whose body was trapped between the frame and bed of a farm truck.

But Karrer said that while Stevenson pulled the bloodied body of his father from the truck, “David had not a drop of blood on him.”

About 40 feet away, he said, was “another substantial amount of blood,” that had oil spilled over the top.

No lights were on in the shed where the body was found, and no tools were found under the bed of the truck.

And there was blood in other places, he said, including blood that had dirt caked over the top of it and blood on a door that had been spray-painted over.

During the autopsy, Karrer said, it was found that Walter Stevenson “had three blows to the back of his head. They would have caused death eventually.”

Oller, however, had another story.

“Walter Stevenson died as a result of a tragic farm accident,” he said. “That’s the way it is.”