Then No One Can Have Her (35 page)

The fingerprint on the lightbulb in the laundry room was not Steve's. It was Jim Knapp's fingerprint on the financial documents in the
Body & Soul
magazine, not Steve's. And if Steve was so worried about the golf club head cover, why give it to his attorney rather than get rid of it altogether?

The detectives had “tunnel vision” from the get-go, he said, and conducted a shoddy investigation. They never properly explored Jim's or any other possible suspects' alibis other than half-baked moves, such as obtaining John Stoler's bank records and Barb O'Non's credit card receipt for the night of the murder.

The detectives didn't think anything of flying all over the country to collect Ronald Birman's DNA, Williams said, but they didn't bother to fly to Maine to check out Carol's boyfriend. Why? “Because they had Steve and they don't want to look any further.”

Detectives also couldn't “match” the shoes or bike tires with the tracks they found around Glenshandra. “If you can't match them and you're asking somebody to convict somebody of first-degree murder, that's pretty doggone sloppy,” he said, reiterating the failure to designate one person to control the crime scene rather than let an army of sheriff 's investigators “tromp” all over it.

The prosecution had no photos or evidence that Steve laid his bike down in the bushes behind Carol's house, he said. And none of Steve's computer searches, or the reportedly incriminating files in his “Book Research” folder, had anything to do with how Carol was actually killed.

Referring to Paupore's “connect the dots” closing, Williams said it was not the jury's constitutional duty to do that. Based on the severe injuries to Carol's head, the killer had an emotional, not a financial, motive.

“Yeah, [Steve] spent some cash, but he's not a murderer,” Williams said, repeatedly comparing the prosecution's case to a board game of Clue. “It's Mr. Plum in the study with a left-handed golf club,” he said, referring to the Clue character Professor Plum.

“I don't have to prove [Knapp] guilty and I don't have to tell you who absolutely murdered her, but there's way more here on Jim Knapp, and it's not a crazy defense theory,” he said. “It's facts, way more than they had against Steve DeMocker.”

As for evidence to support the fraud charges related to the insurance money transfer, Williams said, there was none. Steve, just like his other family members, simply relied on their attorneys' advice, which they discussed on recorded phone lines, with nothing to hide. And as Katie and Charlotte testified, no one forced them to put that money toward Steve's defense.

“They can't put him in the house because he wasn't there,” Williams summed up for the jury. “You know why? Because he did not kill her. You've got to find him not guilty.”

 

 

The prosecution always gets to do its closing argument first and speak last with a rebuttal argument, because it has the burden of proof and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Prosecutor Steve Young followed up Williams's closing with a nearly hour-long statement, which went until 10:32
A.M
.

Young disputed many of Williams's points, starting by dismissing John Stoler, David Soule and Barb O'Non as viable murder suspects, along with Jim Knapp, whom the defense “hung their hat on,” and who, because he committed suicide, couldn't be in court to refute or defend himself against evidence presented by the defense.

Jim Knapp, he said, had no motive to kill Carol. The Maui Wowi deal was dead in February, months before the murder; and even if he did know that Carol had money, he had no way to get it from her or her estate or her life insurance policies once she was dead.

“The defense cannot point to any credible evidence that has been presented in court to show by any stretch of the reasonable imagination that Jim Knapp had any reason whatsoever to kill Carol Kennedy,” he said, shrugging off Williams's scenarios as “rank speculation” that stretched the timeline of events to fit the defense's theory.

The stains on the carpet? There were many of them, and no way to measure their age. The rimless glasses on Carol's desk that the defense claimed were Jim's? Even one of the defense's own exhibit photos, taken in the guesthouse on July 3, showed two pairs of rimless glasses. “Those are his glasses. They're in his guesthouse,” Young said, adding that surely Jim would have retrieved the blood-specked pair from Carol's desk if they were his.

If Carol's landline was disconnected as Williams described, why didn't Carol answer when Ruth called back? Because she was already dead, and it was Steve who killed her.

Steve was the one who had a motive—financial gain—and “750,000 reasons” to kill Carol, so he didn't have to pay alimony and so he could collect on the life insurance policies, of which he was the owner and beneficiary, Young said.

Steve also had an emotional motive, which was clear from the disputes in the e-mails and texts between them, Young said. Steve had no alibi. His phone was mysteriously turned off, and he uncharacteristically didn't answer his calls or texts.

Why, if he was bleeding from cuts on his arm and leg, would his bike and car be free of blood? “Doesn't that prove to you that the defendant took measures both before and after the murder not to get any blood in his vehicle, and if there was any blood, to clean it up? . . . He had gloves on. He took measures that he wasn't going to leave anything behind.”

Steve gave inconsistent accounts about where he was that night and what had happened with his cell phone—he turned it off; there was no signal; he had a dead battery.

Who had a reason to stage the crime scene? “The defendant, who did research on how to kill and collect on life insurance,” he said.

Steve's behavior after the murder only served to further implicate him, Young said, noting that the defendant fabricated evidence with the voice-in-the-vent story and the anonymous e-mail, which was completely contrary to the defense's “consciousness of innocence” claim.

“Hold Steven DeMocker responsible,” Young said. “Find him guilty of the murder of Carol Kennedy so justice can finally be done in this case.”

 

 

The jurors took a twenty-minute break and listened to their instructions. After the five remaining alternates were chosen by lot, the rest of the jury began deliberating at 11
A.M
.

By this time counts six and seven, relating to the forgery charges, and count eight, involving the willful concealment of fraudulent schemes to defraud, had been dismissed.

After deliberating for the next three days, the jury reached a verdict late on the third day. Ruth Kennedy, who had stayed in town to hear the verdict, got the call just as she was heading out for her evening meal. However, the judge decided to hold off on announcing it until first thing the next morning at nine o'clock.

Before the proceedings began promptly on the morning of October 4, Charlotte and Katie made sure to hug and kiss their grandmother, who sat behind the prosecution table. Ruth felt numb, not knowing what to expect, as she waited with a box of tissues in her lap.

“I love you,” Charlotte whispered to Ruth before taking a seat with the rest of the DeMocker family on the opposite side of the gallery, where Steve sat stoically at the defense table.

As the clerk read the verdicts, count by count, the courtroom was packed and yet silent:

“‘We the jury, duly impaneled and sworn in the above-entitled action and upon our oaths, do find the defendant, Steven DeMocker, on the charge of first-degree murder on July 2, 2008, as the result of the death of Virginia Carol Kennedy as follows: Guilty.'”

Hearing this, Katie and Charlotte immediately burst into tears. One of the court officers leaned over to Ruth, grabbed a handful of tissues from the box in her lap and handed them to the girls.

Ruth was in shock. She had waited so long to hear those words. Five long years of waiting and hoping that Steve would be found guilty. As the clerk recited the verdicts for the other counts—guilty, guilty and guilty—Ruth sat back as a wave of relief settled over her.

Sentencing was set for November 13. After the reading was over, and everyone was walking out of the courtroom, Jan DeMocker grabbed Ruth's hand.

“I'll never believe that Steve killed Carol,” Jan said, handing Ruth a medallion with the word “peace” on it.

Ruth didn't agree, of course, but as a mother, she thought she might feel the same way if she were in a similar situation. Steve was Jan's firstborn, after all. But Ruth didn't utter a peep in response. What was there to say? She was just glad she could finally put this horrible ordeal behind her and move on.

It's over,
Ruth thought.
Thank the Lord for small things.

The defense filed the usual motion for a new trial and a separate motion for acquittal, which Judge Donahoe denied.

And, as people are apt to do in a small town, the residents of Prescott talked about the case and whether the verdict was a just one. Although some had strong opinions, others still weren't sure what to think.

Some said that if Steve was guilty, he really was a heinous person, because the crime scene was so bloody. And if he did kill Carol, then the prosecutor's office really messed up the case because it had to take the death penalty off the table after making so many screwups, not the least of which was the Docugate scandal.

For some folks this was also a story about the hubris of County Attorney Sheila Polk, and her ambitions to make her career on this case, only for her office to mishandle it. Steve DeMocker, they said, was a former high-ranking college administrator before becoming a broker. He was a well-respected and moral financial advisor. And Carol Kennedy wasn't a very nice person, dragging out the divorce and milking him.

But there were others, including Carol's friends, who believed that Steve got exactly what was coming to him. After all those years of adulterous affairs, which were known around town, he still managed to get women to sleep with him and continued to torture poor Carol's psyche. He fought with her over finances, spent far more than he earned, then committed this horrible murder. He got what he deserved.

Still, most everyone saw it as a tragedy all around. As gallery co-owner Joanne Frerking put it: “It just seemed like such a lovely family, and behind it all was this horror story, and just deep sadness.”

But no matter how they felt about the trial's outcome, the end of this long roller-coaster ride to justice couldn't end soon enough for most residents, especially when it had cost the taxpayers in this small county so much money.

Dean Trebesch, Yavapai County's public defender, told the
Daily Courier
that the defense's case for the second trial alone cost taxpayers $1.3 million, half of which went to the attorneys, the other half to expert witnesses and staff. Additional money, also paid by taxpayers, went to outside experts and investigators for the first trial, because Steve was declared indigent.

In a memo dated April 2010, before the first trial even began, Trebesch stated that the DeMocker case had dealt the county “a major financial blow” from the “tremendously burdensome expenses.”
Because of its unique and high-profile circumstances, the expenses have been frightful.

 

 

But, of course, this case couldn't end without some more drama.

In mid-October, Dave Rhodes, now a sheriff's captain, pulled Steve from his cell to talk to him without an attorney present, which created a flap that ultimately delayed the sentencing hearing. The defense turned this kerfuffle into yet another reason to ask for a new trial and to disqualify the Yavapai County Attorney's Office from the case.

The state noted, however, that the defense didn't make much, if any, mention of Steve's conversation with Detention Officer Steve Chavez on October 1, immediately after the closing arguments, in which Steve reportedly blamed his attorney for the insurance fraud charges.

“I can't believe that I am being charged with fraud when it was my lawyer's idea,” he told Chavez, adding that this was the reason John Sears and his first defense team had to quit the case.

At an evidentiary hearing on January 8, 2014, Craig Williams called his client to the stand for the first time to give his version of what happened.

Steve DeMocker testified that after the verdict on October 4 he was moved to the infirmary for three days, where he was placed on suicide watch in an observation cell, then was sent back to the general population. The following is Steve's version of events with regard to that meeting with Rhodes.

On October 14, Steve said, he was pulled out of his dorm while he was playing chess with the other inmates, and was told that Rhodes, the jail commander, wanted to talk to him. A detention officer put restraints on him, after which he shuffled to a small room equipped with a camera and monitor, where inmates can talk to judges. Rhodes came in and told the officer to wait outside.

Alone with Steve, Rhodes brought up the interview requests from producers for
Dateline
and
48 Hours,
saying he wanted to hear from Steve—not his attorneys—whether he truly wanted to do the interviews. When Steve said yes, Rhodes asked if he was feeling pressured, because other people, not just the networks and their sponsors, would benefit from the publicity. Steve took that to mean that his attorneys would benefit as well.

Switching gears to the insurance policies, Rhodes said he didn't feel it was right that Steve's daughters didn't get any of their intended inheritance, and that it all went to attorneys who didn't even finish the case.

“They let you take all the blame for it,” Rhodes said.

Steve told Rhodes that he was still represented by attorneys and wasn't sure what, if anything, he should say other than his lawyers thought the money transfer was legal, and that no one was to blame.

“We didn't think any of us did anything wrong,” Steve said.

“We know you were only acting on your attorneys' advice,” Rhodes replied.

“But I was the one you charged,” Steve said.

“This is your chance to get some money back for your daughters,” Rhodes said, adding that the TV networks had the resources to make restitution to Katie and Charlotte, and now Steve had an “opportunity” to make that happen.

Steve testified that he felt manipulated by this exchange, as if the state and Sheila Polk were asking him to help them recover this money. “My feeling was then, as it had been all along, that my attorney—my daughters—did what they wanted to do with their money as adults,” he said.

When Steve told Rhodes that he needed to discuss the matter with his attorneys, the captain replied, “We're just putting it out there” as something for Steve to think about. “There's no rush. Nothing is going to happen until after the sentencing.”

By this point, Steve testified, he was feeling pretty anxious. The life insurance money would likely be a “live issue” at some point, probably as soon as the sentencing hearing. And his gut instinct and experience told him that without an attorney present, he shouldn't make any statement to a law enforcement officer “who is asking me about something that had been alleged to be a crime.”

“If you want to talk to me again, just put in a kite,” Rhodes said, referring to an inmate request form.

“I can contact you through my attorneys, can't I?”

“Yes, of course, you can do that, too.”

With that, Rhodes nodded to the officer through the glass to open the door, then left.

As soon as Steve was back on the cell block, he immediately called his attorney's office. Investigators noted later that he also called his sister Sharon, telling her that the jail captain had pulled him out of his cell “just to confirm that I indeed did want to do these interviews with [NBC and CBS] before they went ahead and tried to figure out how to do them.... I guess he just wanted to make sure I wasn't being pressured by my publicity-hungry attorneys. He didn't say that, but that was the implication.”

Steve later learned that the TV networks' requests to interview him had been denied. Rhodes had determined that they couldn't accommodate that many people in the secure part of the jail.

 

 

When it came time for prosecutor Steve Young to cross-examine Steve DeMocker at the hearing, Young queried the judge if he could ask questions about the murder. Judge Donahoe said any issues raised in the defense's motion for a new trial were fair game.

However, a few questions into Young's cross-examination, in which he focused on the defendant's “inconsistent answers” during statements to detectives in the hours after the murder, Craig Williams invoked Steve's right to remain silent.

Williams accused the state of inappropriately attempting to retry the case, arguing that the cross should be limited to whether Rhodes had violated Steve's Sixth Amendment right to appeal his conviction.

Donahoe didn't see it that way, saying that Steve's entire testimony would be stricken if he wouldn't agree to be cross-examined.

After a ten-minute recess, Williams objected to the judge's move to strike the testimony, noting that Steve had chosen not to testify during the trial. This, Williams said, could just force Steve into “wide-open cross-examination” of all trial evidence, postconviction and at a time when his appeal was pending.

Although the judge did not support the defense's position, Donahoe made several more curious statements about the strength of the state's case.

“I'm not saying that I wouldn't have been surprised if there was a not-guilty verdict, but I thought there was sufficient evidence viewed in a particular way that you could find beyond-a-reasonable-doubt guilt on all those counts, and that's why I let it go to the jury,” he said.

“I think this was a close case and it turned on credibility determinations,” Donahoe said, but the jury was attentive and showed no bias or misconduct. “Based on the totality of what went on for those thirty-seven days, I think Mr. DeMocker got a fair trial.”

As such, the judge denied the defense's motion for a new trial. He also rejected the request to disqualify the county attorney's office.

 

 

Williams tried unsuccessfully to seal a prosecution investigator's report about Steve's jail calls with family after the verdict, calling it “editorializing,” “incendiary” and “highly prejudicial.”

Written by Randy Schmidt, the report summarized 113 of Steve's 140 calls that weren't protected under attorney-client privilege. The report lends some interesting insight into Steve's and his family's perspectives on their own intellects and their place, power and influence in the world around them.

Judge Donahoe said he didn't see anything “unusual or inflammatory” in the report, to which he wasn't going to give any weight at sentencing anyway.

During those calls Steve blamed the judge, Craig Williams, the jury and even the clerk of the court for the guilty verdict. Steve repeatedly described the judge and jury as biased, corrupt and stupid, often characterizing the jurors as idiots with low IQs. Acknowledging that the calls were being recorded, Steve contended that no one could get in trouble for complaining about the jury's vote.

Steve said numerous times that Williams was incompetent, refused to listen to members of the defense team and was too insecure to admit his own inability to provide a good defense.
Steve . . . agreed with his daughter, Katie . . . that it was “shitty lawyering” for Craig . . . to use the third-party culpability defense and to blame Jim Knapp for the murder, when that entire concept was too difficult for a jury with a ninth grade education to grasp and comprehend,
the report stated.
Steve . . . not only agreed with Katie, but he told her that
he
didn't even believe that Jim Knapp had killed Carol.

On the day of the verdict, Steve told his mother that it was the worst day of his life. “Tell the girls that I am so sorry it turned out this way, but I'm okay,” he said.

“This was not fair,” Jan DeMocker said. “I hope we get a better judge next time.”

Steve agreed. “This guy was a nightmare,” he said. “He crammed that jury down our throats and the closing statements—the judge made biased and prejudicial statements.”

Talking to his dad, Steve said, “The judge really hurt us, and that was not a very sophisticated jury.” The next time, he added, he hoped he'd have a better defense team as well.

Steve told Charlotte that he'd been worried about the jurors because five of them had law enforcement officers in their families. “It was just the wrong jury.”

The next night Steve reiterated to Katie what he'd already told Charlotte: “I didn't take Mom from you. I didn't do that.” He also told Katie that the domestic-violence blockbuster e-mail had no basis in truth, contending that Carol had made up the story for a guy she was dating in Las Vegas.

On October 6, Steve told his mom that his relationship with Carol had been misrepresented during the trial. Regardless of the tension from the financial negotiations, he said, they still loved each other.

Never mentioning that Carol was murdered, Steve's calls were all about Steve. “Everything done to me and to my family is just huge,” he told Charlotte on October 7.

During the three days he was on suicide watch, Steve constantly complained that he was being mistreated, forced to wear only a blanket designed to prevent self-harm. He urged his family members to inform the media of these wrongs as a way to influence public opinion, news coverage and the Arizona Court of Appeals.

“I'm being tortured,” he told his mother on October 7. “It's clear what's happening. There is no other way to put it.”

Schmidt's analysis was that Steve wanted to
create a groundswell of dismay and outrage to cause the news magazines and news media to alter their story lines
.

Steve DeMocker and his family seemed to be holding out hope for a third trial, which they strongly believed would take place sometime in the future.