Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
The statement by Randy G. Bowman, a North Carolinian who testified at the Patrick County murder-for-hire trial that sent Stockton to death row, also took issue with a newspaper account that said he had changed his story.
But an attorney for Stockton questioned the circumstances involving Bowman's latest statement, which followed a visit by two police investigators.
``It would appear on the surface to be much more coercive an interview'' than Bowman's interview with the newspaper, said Steven Rosenfield, an appeal attorney for Stockton in Charlottesville.
At Stockton's trial, Bowman testified that he heard Stockton make a deal with another man to accept $1,500 for killing Kenneth Wayne Arnder in 1978.
Last month, however, The Virginian-Pilot, in a story based on an interview with Bowman, quoted him as saying, ``I don't know if they made a deal. ... I've never said I heard - I didn't hear Stockton say, `I'm going to do it.'''
Now, Bowman has denied telling the Norfolk newspaper that he didn't hear the deal.
``Stockton said I will do it, I need the money,'' Bowman said in the statement filed by the Virginia attorney general's office in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. ``I didn't tell the reporter I was changing my testimony. I did not tell the reporter that I didn't hear Stockton say, `I will do it, I need the money.'''
Dennis Hartig, deputy managing editor at The Virginian-Pilot, said the newspaper stood by its story on Bowman.
The state wants to head off a new hearing on Stockton's case.
Bowman, of Mount Airy, N.C., signed the latest statement last week before a notary public in North Carolina.
Don Harrison, a spokesman for Attorney General Jim Gilmore, said Bowman was contacted by state police about last month's newspaper report and agreed voluntarily to meet with investigators and make the statement.
``I am making this statement of my own free will,'' Bowman's statement said. ``No threats or promises have been made. The above statement is true as I remember it.''
In addition to Bowman and the notary, the statement was signed by Michael R. Bass, a Virginia State Police investigator, and Ron L. Perry of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
Attorneys for Stockton have asked the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal court in Roanoke to reopen the case, but only partly because of what appeared in the newspaper.
Rosenfield said the appeal is based chiefly on a claim that prosecutors improperly withheld evidence - a letter from Bowman requesting preferential treatment for testifying against Stockton.
Stockton, who has said he expects to receive an execution date this summer, has maintained his innocence in the slaying of Arnder, who apparently was suspected of stealing drugs from the man who wanted him killed.
by CNB