Twice-convicted death row murderer Stephen Stanko seeking new trial in girlfriend’s killing

Allegations of drug use by the lead attorney for twice-convicted death row murderer Stephen Stanko, lack of time for appellate attorneys to prepare his appeal, and divergence among the defense team during the Georgetown trial in his girlfriend’s brutal beating and strangulation death all were brought up Monday during Stanko’s post-conviction relief hearing.

Stanko was sentenced to death after being convicted in 2006 by a Georgetown County jury in the death of his 43-year-old live-in girlfriend, Laura Ling. The 47-year-old has asked for post conviction relief in that trial and Circuit Court Judge W. Jeffrey Young is presiding over the testimony in the appeal this week.

Stanko also was sentenced to death in the shooting death of 74-year-old Henry Turner of Conway. He also has appealed that decision and is awaiting a judge’s decision.

Stanko’s crime spree took place in April 2005, when he brutally killed Ling in the Murrells Inlet home that he shared with her and Ling’s then-15-year-old daughter, who also was beaten, raped and left for dead, officials said.

Stanko took Ling’s car, drove to Turner’s home in Conway and shot him to death before stealing Turner’s pickup truck, authorities said. Stanko fled to Columbia, where he claimed he was a New York millionaire and flirted with several women at a downtown restaurant.

From there, he traveled to Augusta, Ga., and met another woman and spent the weekend with her before he was arrested there driving Turner’s truck, and with some items from Ling’s home with him, police said. Stanko told the Augusta woman he was a businessman in town for a golf tournament.

In both trials Stanko’s defense was that he suffered a brain defect that caused him to not be aware of the criminal responsibility for his actions.

On Monday, Stanko wore a green South Carolina Department of Corrections jumpsuit and was shackled at his feet and handcuffed to a chain around his belly as several guards watched him during the proceedings. He often spoke with one of his three attorneys during the testimony.

Attorneys with the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office are defending the appeal and believe Stanko should not receive a new trial in the case.

Gerald Kelly, who was the second attorney on the Georgetown County case, testified Monday that he suspected the lead attorney, Bill Diggs, of drug use during the trial and was concerned about using the defense of Stanko having brain injuries that made him not criminally responsible for his actions.

Kelly also said that Diggs told him of the defense theory when they first met before any experts had examined Stanko.

“I didn’t think he was insane. . . . My theory of the case was that he was seriously mentally ill,” Kelly testified Monday and also noted he didn’t think the expert testimony of Stanko being a psychopath was accurate. “He’s a sick ill human being and just as fragile as anybody else.”

Dale Davis, who worked as a mitigation investigator for the trial, also said she didn’t agree with Digg’s defense either.

“I always felt like Bill Diggs was putting up with me because he had to because I didn’t get on board with his theory which is why I didn’t work with him on [Stanko’s] second trial” [in Turner’s death].

During Stanko’s trial in Georgetown County, Kelly said he suspected Diggs was using drugs because he saw him come out of a bathroom with a “white grainy powder on his mustache.”

But Kelly said he didn’t report it to the judge or state’s legal disciplinary council.

“There are certain signs . . . I never confronted him about it. There was no evidence that would standup,” Kelly said and noted he thought Diggs had mood swings, an unreasonable focus and would be awake for long periods of time. “It was as though he was using cocaine to stay awake.”

Diggs is expected to be called to testify in the case on Tuesday.

Also on Monday, Joseph Savitz, an attorney who handled Stanko’s first appeal, testified he didn’t have enough time to prepare for the case because it was ordered to be processed quicker than any other case he’d had since he began in 1985.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were issues in there [trial transcript] that I missed,” Savitz said Monday. “I wrote a letter saying [the case being expedited] was going to be an issue at post-conviction relief because they didn’t give us enough time.”

Testimony resumes Tuesday.

This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Twice-convicted death row murderer Stephen Stanko seeking new trial in girlfriend’s killing."