Woman has no regrets in slaying

Kim Smith

Friday, Sept. 6, 2002 | 10:47 a.m.

Roberta Stevens knew heading into court Thursday she could get a no-parole life sentence for killing her husband. She didn't plead for mercy, though. She lit into her dead victim instead.

"The only ones I owe an apology to are God and my children, all of whom have forgiven me," Stevens told District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

Stevens, 34, said she shot James Stevens to death Dec. 27 after suffering 15 years of verbal and physical abuse. The mother of three said she tried leaving her husband numerous times, but always ended up coming back for financial reasons.

Addressing her in-laws, Stevens said that although her 38-year-old husband had crippling arthritis, pain medications enabled him to beat her.

"Yes, he was a loving person on the outside, I'll give you that, but with me, it was different," Stevens said. "I had to go behind those doors with him. ... He beat the love out of me a long time ago."

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

The couple's 14-year-old daughter corroborated Stevens' version of events, but had a change of heart in February. It was then that she confessed that her mother had placed the knife in James Stevens' hand.

Stevens was arrested and charged with open murder with use of a deadly weapon. She pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in July and prosecutors agreed to drop the weapons enhancement, which would have doubled any sentence.

Bonaventure had the choice of giving Stevens a no-parole life sentence or life in prison with parole possible after 20 years. He opted for the latter sentence, citing Stevens' lack of criminal history and her willingness to spare her daughter from testifying at trial.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane asked Bonaventure to give Stevens the no-parole life sentence, noting the agony she put her daughter through and the cold-blooded nature of the crime itself.

"What an awful thing to do to a 14-year-old. There's a name to what she did to her husband and it's murder, but there's no name to call what she did to her daughter," Kane said.

James Stevens' mother and sisters told Bonaventure their loved one struck Roberta while defending himself. It was only when he struck her that she would stop beating him, they said.

"He'd walk away and she'd jump on his back," Rebecca Sorensen, one of the sisters, said.

Sorensen said Stevens wore white to her husband's burial.

"I think she's glad she did it. No, I know she's glad she did it," Sorensen said. "She thinks all of this is worth it."

James Stevens was a funny, kind and giving man who loved his wife so much he hadn't given up on the marriage until the night before he died, his family said. It was then that he caught his wife and her lover naked on their couch.

Sorensen said she had seen a dark cloud around Roberta Stevens two weeks before her brother died. She had even told her sister and mother about it.

"I never told him," Sorensen sobbed. "I should've told him. I don't know if it would have made a difference, but I know (now) she was planning to do this."