UPDATE / Barbara Stager Up for parole
td
Parole opposed for Durham woman who killed husband
Posted: Feb. 27, 2009
Durham, N.C. - A Durham County woman convicted 20 years ago of killing her
husband is eligible for parole this spring, which scares the man's ex-wife
and local authorities.
Russell Stager, a coach at Durham High School, died of a gunshot wound to
the head in 1988. His wife, Barbara Stager, said a gun under his pillow
accidentally went off while he slept, but a jury didn't believe her and
convicted her of first-degree murder.
Her death sentence was later overturned on procedural grounds, and she was
sentenced to life in prison. Before state legislators changed sentencing
laws in 1994, inmates serving life sentences became eligible for parole
after 20 years.
Durham County investigators and Russell Stager's family plan to speak to the
state parole board in an effort to keep Barbara Stager in prison. Russell
Stager's ex-wife also has sent comments to the board opposing her release.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4631817/
PT
I read a book by, I believe, Ann Rule, and this woman's first husband
died the same way! She was up to her eyeballs in debt, got life
insurance policies on her husbands and then killed them. Accidents?
Yeah, right.
pt
td
"PT" <pigtr...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:d66a1465-741f-4af9...@e1g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
pt
----------------------------------------------
Are you thinking of this one? Before He Wakes, Jerry Bledsoe? Excellent
book, I like everything Bledsoe writes.
Oh I agree, Barbara is guilty as sin, both husbands, but she was only
accused of Russ Stager, not the first husband.
td
erob...@hotmail.com
> "PT" <pigtrott...@comcast.net> wrote in message
>
> Are you thinking of this one? Before He Wakes, Jerry Bledsoe? Excellent
> book, I like everything Bledsoe writes.
>
> Oh I agree, Barbara is guilty as sin, both husbands, but she was only
> accused of Russ Stager, not the first husband.
>
>
> - Show quoted text
There is also a movie about it by the same name.If i recall
correctly,Jacklyn Smith played Barbara.
PT
> "PT" <pigtrott...@comcast.net> wrote in message
>
> Are you thinking of this one? Before He Wakes, Jerry Bledsoe? Excellent
> book, I like everything Bledsoe writes.
>
> Oh I agree, Barbara is guilty as sin, both husbands, but she was only
> accused of Russ Stager, not the first husband.
>
> td
Yes, yes, yes that's it ! Thank you ! Sad thing, Russ wanted to
divorce her, but since he adopted her children, he didn't want to
leave them fatherless again.
I'm going to have to read that book again.
Thanks again, td !
pt
td
<erob...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:0f27600b-880b-4aa7...@h20g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
------------------------------------
Yes, although Jaclyn Smith was way too attractive to play Stager, 'eh? ;)
I wonder what happened to Stager's boys.
td
---------------------------------------
Your welcome. I always felt sorry for Russ' first wife, IIRC, her name was
Snow? Something *Snow*. But for her determination, Barbara might have
gotten away with a second murder of a husband.
td
td
Posted: Today at 6:00 p.m.
Updated: 44 minutes ago
Durham, N.C. - Russell Stager appeared to have it all in the late 1980s. He
was a respected baseball coach at Durham High School and had a loving wife.
It all came to a sudden end the night of Feb. 1, 1988.
Stager was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. His wife told police she
accidentally jostled the handgun he kept under his pillow, and it went off
while he slept.
Prosecutors didn't believe Barbara Stager's story, and after a sensational
1989 trial in Lee County - the case had to be moved from Durham because of
intense publicity - a jury deliberated less than an hour before convicting
her of first-degree murder in her husband's death.
Twenty years later, Barbara Stager is up for parole. Investigators and
Russell Stager's family say they're afraid of what might happen if she is
released from prison.
"I believe Barbara is a serial killer," said Jo Lynn Snow, Russell Stager's
first wife.
Stager's first husband, Larry Ford, died under similar circumstances in
Randolph County in March 1978. Authorities there initially ruled Ford's
death an accident. They never found enough evidence later to file any
criminal charges.
"She got away with the first one. She thought she could do it the second
time, and she didn't make it," said Capt. Ricky Buchanan of the Durham
County Sheriff's Office, who investigated Russell Stager's death.
Barbara Stager, 60, declined to speak with WRAL News, and no relatives,
friends or former attorneys would speak on her behalf.
Russell and Barbara Stager married less than a year after Ford's death, said
Snow, who remained on good terms with her ex-husband.
Two months before he died, Snow said, he told her his new marriage was
plagued by money problems and infidelity and that he had become suspicious
of his wife.
"He asked me, if anything ever happened to him, would I please look into
it," Snow said.
Buchanan still keeps in his office the files on the 21-year-old case, which
was the foundation of the 1994 novel "Before He Wakes." It was made into a
television movie of the same name four years later.
He said he vividly remembers the day Barbara Stager was sentenced to death,
a sentence that was later overturned on procedural grounds and replaced by a
sentence of life in prison.
"Life then was (a minimum of) 20 years, and here we are 20 years later," he
said.
The North Carolina Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission won't rule
on Stager's parole until May, but investigators and Russell Stager's family
are expected to speak to the panel this week to oppose her release.
Like Snow, Buchanan said he's afraid of Barbara Stager getting out from
behind bars. The former Sunday school teacher has a way of gaining trust
that makes her especially dangerous, he said.
"She's the pillar of the community during the day, but behind closed doors
at night, she's another woman. She's evil," he said.
Snow said she fears not only for her safety if Stager is released, but also
the emotions that return whenever her ex-husband's death is replayed.
"He loved life. He gave an awful lot to his community and to his family,"
she said. "Whenever we talk about Russ or we act on his behalf, he sort of
comes alive again for us, and then when that is over, we have to bury him
again."
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4631817/
Michael Snyder
I *knew* I remembered the name! You're right. She had two
husbands in a row who died from accidental gunshot wounds to
the head while lying in their beds.
Michael Snyder
I *knew* I remembered the name! You're right. She had two