Sep 11, 2008

The Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District has denied Daniel K. Stewart a new trial in his 2005 second-degree murder conviction. Stewart, 42, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2003 murder of his wife, Kathy, an Ava Elementary School counselor. At the trial, held in Phelps County on a change of venue, the medical examiner who conducted an autopsy on the body testified that Kathy Stewart died of asphyxiation due to suffocation. Craig A. Johnston, counsel for the appellant, appealed the conviction on four points. In Point I he contends the evidence was insufficient to convict Stewart of second-degree murder. In Points II-IV he contends the trial court erred by failing to give a character instruction; not granting a mistrial because a witness mentioned that the defendant underwent a polygraph examination; and overruling an objection to testimony that constituted an impermissible comment on the defendant's invocation of his right to remain silent. Finding no merit in any of these contentions, the appellate court affirmed the trial court’s original verdict. Judge John Moody, of the 44th Judicial Circuit, presided over the proceedings in Rolla where the trial was held after two attempts to seat a jury here. A Phelps County jury convicted Stewart of second-degree murder. Jury sentencing was waived and the court imposed the 25-year term of imprisonment. Stewart began his sentence in October 2005.