Stevens v. People

In this murder-for-hire case, the defendant, David Stevens, was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation to commit first-degree murder, in connection with the February 28, 1998, shooting death of David Seiler.1 The prosecution's theory was that the defendant engaged John Swiger to kill the victim in order to prevent the victim from testifying against the defendant in an upcoming criminal trial scheduled for April 1998. In that trial, the same defendant, Stevens, was charged with kidnapping and severely beating the same victim, Seiler, in the…