State v. Stewart

KETCHUM, J.:

Rhonda Kay Stewart (“defendant”) appeals her conviction in the Circuit Court of Kana-wha County for the first degree murder of her husband. The trial court observed at sentencing that the defendant was “abused throughout her life ... by the man she killed." However, at trial, the circuit court prohibited the defendant from presenting evidence that she had been battered and abused by her husband during their thirty-eight-year marriage. The trial judge did not allow eyewitnesses to testify about this abuse, and did not allow an expert witness to testify as to how this abuse may have…