Opinion ID: 1316070
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Stacy Stalks Mitchell and Murders Walter

Text: Stacy's trial for sexual assault of Walter's daughters was scheduled for July of 2002. The Walters allege that, as the trial approached, Stacy's behavior became increasingly menacing and threatening towards Mitchell, Jacobs, and Walter. For example, in January of 2002, Michael Walter received a prank call which he attributed to Stacy. Susan Walter also saw a man she thought looked like Stacy riding a bicycle on her street. Neither incident was ever confirmed to be attributable to Stacy, however. In April of 2002, Stacy made a pre-trial motion to suppress his August 16, 2001 confession, arguing that it resulted from a plan to secure a confession through deception, which Stacy called a trap designed by Officer Mitchell and Mr. Walter. Outside of court, Stacy called Mitchell repeatedly and in June of 2002 asked a local real-estate agent for Mitchell's home address. Mitchell told the real-estate agent to tell Stacy that Mitchell could be found at Mitchell's office at a certain time every day, and on July 1, 2002, Mitchell observed Stacy sitting in a car outside Mitchell's office at the given time. Mitchell arranged with DeSarro and Jacobs for police protection the next day in order to catch Stacy stalking him, and the Walters allege that Jacobs also arranged for protection for himself, including at his private law practice. But Stacy did not reappear on July 2, 2002. Mitchell and DeSarro sought to revoke Stacy's bail, citing Stacy's appearance at Mitchell's office the previous day, but the judge found that there were no grounds to have Stacy remanded. The next day, July 3, 2002, Mitchell took leave from his job and left the vicinity of Pike County. The Walters allege that Mitchell was instructed to leave for his own protection, but Mitchell testified that he already had a vacation scheduled for that time and left work less than a day ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, Jacobs and DeSarro discussed whether or not to tell the Walters about Stacy's behavior toward Mitchell, and decided against it. DeSarro testified that if Stacy was going to do something that was improper one way or another, it was going to be toward Detective Mitchell, and we had no reason to believe [against] anyone else, at least in my mind. DeSarro also testified that he asked the state police to increase their patrol of the Walters' street on the weekend before Stacy's trial, but the Walters contend that there is no evidence corroborating that testimony. On Friday, July 5, 2002, the last weekday before Stacy's trial was scheduled to begin, Stacy drove to Walter's place of employment at the Port Jervis auto mall in Port Jervis, New York, outside the jurisdiction of the Westfall Township Police and Pike County District Attorney's Office. According to Walter's coworker, Stacy entered the auto dealership and waited for a few minutes while Walter worked with a customer. When Walter was done with the customer, Stacy shot Walter in the groin and head, killing him. Stacy had written in a note to his wife, dated two days before the shooting, that he hope[d] to get done what I believe is the best to dosomeone has to pay for setting me up....