New & Noteworthy...

Stevens Acquitted of First Degree Murder

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Matthew Stevens was found guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of his best friend during a drunken birthday party after a jury deliberated for a little more than two hours Thursday.

Stevens, 47, of South Reading, had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Carl Ackley, also of South Reading, at Ackley's 44th birthday party Aug. 1, 2006.

Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand said Stevens still faced a potential sentence of life without parole, depending on what Judge Theresa DiMauro decides, with a presumed minimum of 20 years behind bars.

He said the verdict did not surprise him.

"It's not a surprising outcome," Sand said. "It's the jury's response to the evidence."

Sand, while declining to comment on the details of the case, said that in general the difference between first- and second-degree murder comes down to premeditation, something that Stevens' attorney, David Sleigh, had argued repeatedly didn't exist in the shooting.

Ackley died of a single gunshot wound to the neck; he died almost instantly on the steps leading up to his friend's trailer.

Stevens claimed it was self defense and that he didn't know the gun was loaded. He said he wanted to scare Ackley because he had threatened him.

Stevens declined to take the stand and testify in his trial Thursday. Defense attorney Sleigh called only one person, a neighbor of Stevens, who said she thought she had heard only one gunshot that night, but she wasn't sure.

Other neighbors testified they heard two or three shots.

DiMauro granted Sleigh's request to have 30 days to file post-conviction motions. After that, Sand said, a pre-sentence investigation will be ordered.

"It will be well into the new year before he is sentenced," Sand said.

Two male relatives of Ackley, who said they were his uncle and his brother-in-law, attended every day of the testimony, waiting along with reporters for the verdict. They declined to comment.

Stevens was returned to the Springfield prison, where he has been held pending his trial, according to Sand.

Kathleen Ladd, forewoman of the jury, declined to comment about the verdict when contacted at home.

Earlier in the day, Sand had pushed hard for the first-degree murder conviction, saying that while Stevens might have been really drunk, he wasn't too drunk to start concocting his own defense seconds after he shot Ackley.

"Take the measure of this man," Sand urged the jury. "He murders his best friend and then he blames his best friend."

The eight-woman and four-man jury began deliberations Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. after hearing closing arguments from Sand and Sleigh.

They announced they had a verdict before 5 p.m., ending the trial that started Monday and included two days of testimony.

Stevens had conceded most of the points of a murder case, admitting he shot Ackley. The issue left for the trial and the jury was the degree of culpability.

Sleigh said his client was acting through the "thick fog of alcohol impairment" when he shot Ackley, who Stevens said had threatened him.

"Two drunken buddies somehow had a blow out," said Sleigh, adding that there was no way Stevens, as drunk as he was, could formulate a plan of murder, which is a necessary element of first-degree murder.

Judge DiMauro gave the jury a lengthy instruction on the law pertaining to the case, saying the jury could find Stevens guilty of five different crimes — first-degree murder, second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, voluntary manslaughter and justifiable homicide — or they could acquit.

While the judge said the jurors could consider Stevens' argument of diminished capacity because of his intoxication, they would have to discard it as a mitigating factor if the jury found that Stevens' voluntarily got drunk and was aware of his own predisposition toward violence when drinking.

And the judge noted that while premeditation meant Stevens had considered murder "for some period of time," that time frame could mean a month "or a period of seconds."

It's not so much the length of time, she told the jury, as "the quality of meditation … and thought."

The jury took with them into the jury room a lengthy videotape taken in a Vermont State Police cruiser of Stevens as he talked to Trooper Tom Powers on his way to the Vermont State Police barracks in Rockingham.

Sand urged the jurors to listen to the videotape again, noting that Stevens is very revealing despite slurring his words.

Sand noted both Stevens and Ackley were experienced drinkers, as their high blood alcohol content showed. That tolerance of alcohol meant that Stevens was much more functional than a normal person would have been, he said.

Sand pointed to the fact that Stevens left a handwritten note, leaving all his property to his then-girlfriend Deborah Marcotte, tucked under the rear windshield wiper of his Jeep Cherokee, as proof he was capable of planning despite his drunkenness.

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.