Stamper - "I couldn't pull the trigger"

Published: April 19, 2005

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Court-appointed defense attorney Ted Coran shows his client, Robert James Stamper Jr., the gun Stamper allegedly used to intimidate the victim in the July 12, 2004, abduction. Stamper took the stand in his own defense Monday.

By KATIE WILLSON
Of the News-Register


In a dramatic development, former prison guard Robert James Stamper Jr., on trial for the abduction, rape and attempted murder of a young McMinnville woman, took the stand in his own defense Monday.

And while his version of the events of July 12, 2004, mirrored that of the prosecution in many respects, if differed on one important point:

After sexually abusing his victim in the woods west of McMinnville, he planned to kill her - knew he needed to, in fact, to avoid getting caught. But with the laser sight of his .38 caliber Smith & Wesson trained on her chest, he told jurors, he couldn't pull the trigger.

The significance? To convict him of attempted murder, the 12 jurors in the case must be convinced of his intent.

They figure to get the case Wednesday, after the prosecution and defense each present their closing arguments. No proceedings are planned Tuesday, because defense counsel Ted Coran of Salem has another commitment.

Stamper, 28, is facing five counts of attempted aggravated murder, three counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sodomy and one count each of attempted murder, first-degree burglary, second-degree assault, fourth-degree assault and attempted first-degree sodomy.

The various counts of attempted murder, with or without aggravation, reflect differing theories of Stamper's motivation. They would be merged into one for sentencing, and he would get the mandatory minimum set out in the law - 120 months for attempted aggravated murder or 90 for attempted murder.

In contrast, the multiple counts of the other offenses reflect an allegation that they were committed multiple times, and the prosecution is seeking separate convictions on each with separate sentences potentially running consecutively.

Stamper was the only witness called by Coran before he rested his case.

Coran's goal appears limited to avoiding conviction of his client for attempted murder and persuading the jury not to convict on multiple counts of the other charges, on the theory the acts were all part of a single continuing offense. He effectively conceded the rest of the prosecution case, telling the court, "I don't think I've ever seen a better case on identity and the nature of a crime."

Coran begin Monday's proceedings by delivering his opening argument.

District Attorney Brad Berry delivered the opening argument for the prosecution when the trial got under way last Wednesday.

However, Coran reserved his statement until Berry had finished laying out the prosecution case. Berry led off with the victim and followed with a parade of expert witnesses detailing the state's forensic evidence.

Coran said he waited to take his turn so that jurors could focus on the evidence. It should, he conceded, "leave no doubt that Mr. Stamper is the gentleman, and I use that term loosely."

He told jurors, "I want you to feel comfortable that you don't have to worry, did they get the wrong guy, have they proven it's him?" He asked them to focus on just one question.

"As thorough and as competent and as complete as Mr. Berry has been, there is evidence that he could not know about, important evidence," Coran said. "The only person who knew about that was Robert Stamper.

"Will it make a difference? I don't know. That's the question I'm asking. Does it matter to you?

"As difficult as it is to try and give a sense of justice to a man like Mr. Stamper, none the less, that is what I'm going to ask you to do."

Coran then called Stamper to the stand and led him through the events of the day in question, eliciting a tale that largely paralleled the one the victim told last week.

Stamper said he got off work at the federal correctional facility in Sheridan about midnight July 11. He stopped off at 7 Eleven for a 40-oz. bottle of Old English, then returned home to play video games.

"I was frustrated with life in general," he told the jury, a fistful of tissue in his hand. "My ex wouldn't let me see my kids. The more I drank, the more upset and angry I got."

So he decided to go out and find someone to hurt.

Through a former girlfriend, he knew about the Mennonite group home where the victim helped care for mentally challenged adults. And he knew women filled most of the shifts, including the graveyard shift.

Stamper returned to 7 Eleven and dialed the group home number. When a woman answered, he hung up.

The voice on the other end belonged to an 18-year-old college woman with a handsome young fiancZ.

But he didn't know that, or care. He just knew a woman was working alone at the home.

After he found the front door locked, Stamper told jurors, he considered giving up and going home to resume playing video games. But he went around back and tried other doors until he found one that was unlocked.

Inside, he spotted the victim asleep on the living room couch. Displaying a gun, he kidnapped her, knowing he was going to take her somewhere secluded and hurt her.

He said he hadn't formulated any sort of real plan. He didn't know exactly where he would take her or what he would do to her.

She asked him if she was in danger, he recalled. And he assured her she was not.

"That was a lie, wasn't it?" Coran asked. "Yes," he responded.

She asked if he was going to rape her. He said "Why, do you want me to?"

"You were mocking her, weren't you? Coran asked. "Yes," he said.

"That was another lie, wasn't it?" his attorney asked. "Yes," he admitted.

After he ordered her into his pickup, Stamper joked, "I'll bet you never sleep on the job again." He said she laughed and they chit-chatted for the next half hour as he drove up to the Trask Mountain area northwest of McMinnville.

She mentioned that he seemed like a nice kidnapper. He mentioned that he had never done anything like this before.

"Are you so delusional as to think she was actually having a good time?" Coran asked.

"At the time I thought it was going all right," Stamper replied.

Stamper's testimony continued to roughly parallel that of the victim, but their versions differed at points.

She said she was forcibly raped and sodomized in the initial attack in the bed of Stamper's truck. He said he gave her a choice, and then went ahead and had sex with her when she remained silent.

"How could you possibly believe you were giving her a choice," Coran asked.

"I believed I was giving her a choice," Stamper replied. "Now I realize she had no choice."

He denied sodomizing her in that attack.

Afterward, Stamper showed the victim his newly purchased Smith & Wesson. He removed the bullets and forced her to hold it as they sat on the tailgate of his red pickup and talked.

"And you're still under the impression that what, you've made a new friend?" Coran asked.

"Just about," he said.

But Stamper admitted she was terrified of the gun and wanted him to drive her back down out of the woods. "I said I would see what I could do," he said.

"That was another lie, wasn't it?" Coran asked. "Yes," he said.

As they climbed into the cab, he asked if she planned to tell on him. She said she would have to tell people she had been kidnapped.

When she said that, Stamper said, "I realized I couldn't take her back. I was going to hurt her." But at that point, he insisted, "I never thought of killing her."

They drove on to another secluded site, where he forced her out of the truck and sodomized her. Then he got his gun out, reloaded it and told her they were going for a walk.

"Isn't it true you brought the gun to shoot her?" Coran asked.

"Absolutely not," Stamper said. He said it was strictly for intimidation. He knew she was terrified of it.

They walked back to a clearing, sat down and began to talk about what to do next.

"I wanted to find a - I was looking for a way out of this," he said. "I was thinking of the best-case scenario - for me, for her. I just didn't want to get in trouble."

Stamper said she offered to stay behind and promised not to tell anyone.

He decided to have sex with her again, and unzipped his pants, he told jurors. She offered to give him oral sex instead and he agreed, though with reservations.

When she bit down hard, he was shocked and enraged. He punched her in the face and pushed her away.

"What kind of fool are you?" Coran asked.

"I'm not saying I didn't deserve it," Stamper replied. "I'm just saying I didn't expect it."

When he attempted another sex act, but failed, he became even more enraged, he said. So he strangled her with her tank top.

"I wanted her to hurt for making me hurt," he said, "to teach her a lesson."

But he didn't intend to kill her, he said. When he let go of the shirt, he heard her gasping for air.

The state's theory is that Stamper, believing her dead, took her clothes and jewelry and fled. As evidence, the prosecution noted that he had apparently attempted to hide her body in the brush.

Stamper said it wasn't that simple. He said he didn't want to get caught, so he concocted a plan.

"On top of everything, I had just strangled her," he said. "I knew this wasn't going to turn out good for me."

At this point, he said, "I knew I had to kill her."

Stamper said he drug her into a depression, stripped off her clothes and jewelry, covered her with branches and picked up his gun. He said he trained the laser sight on her chest for about a minute.

"But I was unable to pull the trigger," he said. He said he felt a presence, something touching his shoulder.

"Then all the pain and all the anger just went away," he said. "It wasn't worth killing someone."

Onlookers from the audience scoffed. The victim, apparently having enough of it, walked out of the courtroom.

On cross-examination, Berry focused on a series of lies Stamper had told - lies he told the victim during her ordeal and lies he told detectives after being arrested at the prison. He painted Stamper's claim about not being able to kill her as just one more self-serving lie.

"Mr. Stamper, you said you couldn't shoot her and you left," Berry said. "What did you think was going to happen?"

"I was hoping I wouldn't get caught," Stamper said.

"You didn't expect her to wake up, did you?" Berry asked.

"I know she was alive when I left, Mr. Berry," Stamper replied.

On re-direct, Coran said, "Mr. Stamper, let's try to cut right to it. You're a pretty stupid criminal, aren't you?

"I mean this is a horribly thought-out concept. Rather impulsive, done under the influence of alcohol. And you sort of bumbled your way though it, because you didn't have an exit plan. But when push came to shove, you didn't have the ability to actually kill someone, did you?"

"I did a lot of things that night," Stamper said. "But I am not a murderer."