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Friday, September 26, 1997

Man executed for killing ex-wife and stepdaughter

By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press Writer

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Condemned murderer Benjamin Stone got his wish Thursday evening as Texas prison officials executed him for killing his ex-wife and stepdaughter two years ago at their Corpus Christi home.

Stone, 45, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., seven minutes after an executioner started the flow of lethal drugs into his arms.

Asked if he had a statement, Stone shook his head while one of two sisters watching through a window a few feet away cried and trembled. As the drugs took effect, Stone gasped once before he stopped breathing.

Stone had been clear in his wish to be executed for the July 1, 1995 strangling of his ex-wife, Patsy, 34, and his stepdaughter, Keitha Lynn Van Coney, 12. The pair also had been raped.

In a death-row interview last week, the former plumber said Thursday was "going to be a fine day."

"I'll be there. 6 p.m. Hope they don't botch it," he said.

A Nueces County jury took seven minutes to convict Stone and deliberated seven minutes to decide on the death sentence.

His 17 months on death row is the second-shortest time a condemned Texas inmate has waited between conviction and execution. Only convicted killer Joe Gonzales, imprisoned 252 days before execution last year, had a shorter death row stay. Gonzales, like Stone, volunteered for death.

The average time spent on death row in Texas is nine years before the sentence is carried out.

"It took me a while to figure out how to do this," Stone said. "I wrote a letter to the judge. I wrote a letter to the Court of Criminal Appeals. I wrote a letter to (Attorney General Dan) Morales. I went through all their games and here I am."

Stone refused legal help and refused to have appeals filed on his behalf.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's the only way I'll find peace of mind," he said.

His execution was the second this week in Texas and 28th this year, adding to a record number of executions in the state in 1997. Another is scheduled for next week.

No relatives of the murder victims attended the execution.

"We're hoping just to be able to close up and get on with our lives,' Vanessa Turberville, wife of Mrs. Stone's brother, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. "It's been very hard for the family."

Stone called police from a pay phone at a highway rest stop near Corpus Christi the afternoon of July 2, 1995 and told the stunned 911 dispatcher that he had strangled his wife and stepdaughter. Then he waited there for authorities to arrive and arrest him. Other officers found the bodies at the family home on Corpus Christi's Grizzley Street.

Stone had a history of alcohol and drug abuse and received probation after being convicted of attempted sexual assault against his sister. At his capital murder trial, he stood mute, refusing to plead innocent as his attorneys preferred.

"I just snapped," the Oceanside, Calif., native said of the murders. "There were a few things that happened. Things built up to a point and I just snapped."

Ben and Patsy Stone married in 1985 when Keitha was almost 3 and moved from Austin to Corpus Christi. Court records showed they separated in January 1994. Mrs. Stone then filed for divorce, which was granted in December 1994, although friends said the couple had been spending more time together at the time of the slayings.