Woman pleads guilty to murder of husband

Kim Smith

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.

A Las Vegas woman who claimed she killed her husband in self-defense but was arrested after her daughter contradicted her story pleaded guilty to first-degree murder this morning.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure could give Roberta Stevens, 34, a prison term of life with or without the possibility of parole when he sentences her Sept. 3.

Had Stevens gone to trial and been convicted she could have received a double life sentence because of a weapons enhancement, Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane said.

Stevens called 911 on Dec. 27 to tell police that she had shot and killed her husband, James, after he lunged at her with a kitchen knife in an argument over her lesbian lover.

Stevens' 14-year-old daughter gave detectives the same version of events, but in February she told them that her mother had placed the knife in James Stevens' hand.

During Stevens' preliminary hearing in March, the teenager testified that she lied because she didn't want to lose both of her parents. She said her father had physically abused her mother numerous times in the past.

A crime scene investigator also testified that blood patterns indicated the knife had been placed in the victim's hand after the shooting.

Stevens remains in the Clark County Detention Center on $500,000 bail.