Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 11, 1995 TAG: 9510110045
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAY E. GREGORY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As the investigator and the person who arrested Stockton on the ``murder for hire'' case involving the teen-ager, Kenneth Wayne Arnder - who was murdered by being shot between his eyes and his hands cut off, execution-style - I must respond in support of the juries that sentenced Stockton to death.
Over several years, I met with him in my office at the Patrick County Sheriff's Department and the prison where he was awaiting his death sentence. My first contact with him was in 1980 when he drove into Patrick County and fired several shots into a store in Willis Gap. Customers had to lie on the floor to keep from being killed by the bullets. Stockton was arrested that night, and would later be brought to Patrick County for trial on charges of attempted murder and shooting into an occupied building.
During many interviews with him, he confessed to me that he had buried people, dealt in interstate drug dealings, burned buildings for money and broken into many homes and businesses. On some of these crimes I was able to build cases and charge him. In 1981, Stockton told me of a specific body that he had buried three years before. I transported him to North Carolina, and he showed me the location where he thought it was. We got heavy equipment in and couldn't locate the grave. Then, in May 1982, he told me of another body he had buried in North Carolina, and once again I transported him to the wooded area that surrounded an open field. This grave I was able to locate, and I dug up the remains of Ronnie Lee Tate, another teen-ager. Tate was shot once in his face and twice in his chest. After recovering the body, North Carolina officials obtained murder warrants against Stockton.
Shortly after Tate was dug up, Stockton told me that he had personal knowledge that Kenneth Wayne Arnder's killing occurred in Kibler Valley, Patrick County, and that he would cooperate with me in prosecuting others involved in the Arnder murder by the time the September 1982 grand jury would meet in Patrick County. It was at that time the commonwealth's attorney's office approved for me to obtain the murder-for-hire warrant. Stockton never kept the promise that he would cooperate against others.
During the times I spent with him, we built a close working relationship together. Some of the times he would be eating his supper, and he would never miss a bite of food while talking about other killings and other people being buried. Stockton promised that he could find other graves and bodies, and would do so only if I could get him reward money. I tried to work out a way with North Carolina to get him the reward money and still be able to charge him, but we were unable to do so. Stockton would tell me, ``No money, no bones.''
He admitted to me that he was involved in the Arnder murder, but never told me to what extent. After his conviction, he did admit that he had seen Arnder's cut-off hands.
I firmly believe that because of the arrest and good work of the jury, both in Patrick County and Newport News, where he was resentenced to death on this case, that several lives have been saved over the past 12 years. This case has been investigated and reinvestigated by local and state law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors and defense attorneys, private investigators and judges - all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Randy Bowman was never a suspect in this killing. And as one Appeals Court stated, the evidence in this case was ``overwhelming'' against Stockton.
I firmly believe Stockton was a ``devil on Earth.'' I support the juries and victims on this case, and believe that justice was finally served on Sept. 27.
Jay E. Gregory, of Stuart, is sheriff of Patrick County.
by CNB