Stevens v. State

Hunt, Justice.

Before a judge sitting without a jury, Gregory Rupert Stevens was tried for the murder of his wife, was found guilty but mentally ill, and was sentenced to life in prison.

The morning of October 20, 1985, the defendant and his wife left their home in Ohio to drive to Florida to visit the wife’s parents. They ran out of gas in Georgia in the late afternoon on Interstate 75 and remained in their car parked off the interstate for over 24 hours during which time the defendant beat or strangled his wife to death.

In the late afternoon of October 21, the defendant walked to a nearby…