Stewart v. Commonwealth

In the first phase of a bifurcated trial conducted pursuant to the provisions of Code §§ 19.2-264.3 and -264.4, a jury convicted Kenneth Manuel Stewart, Jr., of the first degree murder of his wife, Cynthia Jeanne Stewart, and the use of a firearm in the commission of that murder. The jury also convicted Stewart of the capital murder of his five-month-old son, Jonathan Edward Stewart, as a part of the same act or transaction as the killing of Cynthia Stewart, Code § 18.2-31(7), and the use of a firearm in the commission of Jonathan’s murder. The jury fixed the punishments for the noncapital…