Adele Craven had come a long way from her working-class roots in Long Beach, California. She'd met and married a charming airline pilot who gave her the life she'd always dreamed of.

Together they had two children and became active in their community. Stephen's long trips left Adele lonely, but a remodeling business with a family friend seemed to occupy her spare time.

Then, on July 12, 2000, Stephen's body was found at the bottom of the basement stairs. Cops investigating the brutal murder soon learned that Adele had more than a business relationship with family friend Rusty McIntyre. He was Adele's lover.

Police arrested Adele and Rusty and charged them with conspiring to kill Stephen Craven. Rusty confessed and gave the name of the hit man he claimed he had hired at Adele's request. But Adele claimed Rusty acted on his own, killing Stephen so he could have her to himself.

At trial, she testified in her own defense, and the jury deadlocked. But prosecutors tried again, convinced she killed her husband to get his life insurance money. Halfway through the second trial, Adele decided to plead guilty to conspiring to kill her husband. She was sentenced to life in prison.

Adele Craven - Murder

Craven: Killing was my idea

Wife gets life after admitting role in husband's murder

By Jim Hannah - The Cincinnati Enquirer

Friday, February 20, 2004

LEXINGTON - Adele Craven's 3 1/2-year lie came to an abrupt end Thursday when she stood before a judge and admitted she orchestrated her husband's killing.

By Paul A. Long - Post staff reporter

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- After 3½ years of proclaiming her innocence, Adele Craven now has two important people to confess to -- her sons, Daniel, 12, and Joseph, 10.

By mail and by phone, Ms. Craven had assured them she had nothing to do with the brutal killing of their father, Stephen Craven, in 2000.

But on Thursday in a Fayette County courtroom, she changed her story and admitted that she had planned and participated in the gruesome slaying. In an agreement reached after hours of intense negotiations, she brought her second trial to an abrupt end by pleading guilty to murder and accepting a sentence of life in prison.

While four attorneys helped her navigate her way through the two trials and countless hearings in the justice system, she will be on her own in explaining her actions to her boys, who are living with their aunt and uncle in Georgia.

"It's going to be very difficult to tell them," said William Wilson, one of her attorneys. "But it's something only she can do."

Ms. Craven admitted she conspired with Ronald Pryor and Russell "Rusty" McIntire to kill Stephen Craven in the basement of the Cravens' Edgewood, Ky., home on July 12, 2000. Prosecutors said she wanted to continue her affair with McIntire and collect on a $450,000 insurance policy. Pryor agreed to do the killing for $15,000.

"She deserved more, but this guilty plea prevents her from filing  appeals,'' said Assistant Attorney General Luke Morgan, who prosecuted the case.

"The family will be spared the arguments of an appeal. The community will be spared the question of what an appeals court may do.

"This shows now, beyond any doubt, that she did this, and it shows (the community) who the three people were who murdered this fine man in his own home -- - and that they did it because of greed."

"I wasn't happy with the deal when Luke (Morgan) first explained it," Bill Craven said. "But the more I considered it, the better I liked it.

"The best part of the deal is that she is admitting guilt, and signing a statement of guilt. I don't think she'll ever be let out of prison."

Shortly after 3 p.m., a teary-eyed Adele Craven entered the courtroom, wearing a calf-length black skirt and a black and white sweater. Flanked by her attorneys, she looked straight ahead before sitting down between them.

Sitting behind her were her brother, a sister, a childhood friend from California and several Northern Kentucky friends.

On the other side of the courtroom, sitting behind Morgan, were Stephen Craven's family -- his mother, his brother and sister-in law, and one of his sisters.

The hand she raised to swear an oath shook visibly. Throughout the proceeding, she wept openly, hugging herself with one hand on her neck, a tissue clenched in her fist.

Her voice cracked as she identified herself. Her brief answers to questions posed by Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe were quiet and punctuated by sobs.

Steven Craven's mother was not moved.

"She was crying for herself," said Garnet Craven, who came from Palm Springs, Calif., to attend, and was there nearly every day of both trials.

"She killed him many times. She planned it. She called him down the stairs. She handed the gun to (Pryor) two different times.

"She made many, many conscious efforts to kill him."

During the hearing, Morgan read a page-and-a-half statement of facts outlining the killing.

"Ronald Pryor hit Mr. Craven several times with a crowbar and shot him three times in the head'' -- here, Morgan's voice rose dramatically, and he lifted his eyes from the document and looked directly at Adele Craven -- "at the direction of the co-defendants, Adele Craven and Rusty McIntire.

The statement ended: "Pryor and McIntire left the home. The crowbar and handgun were also placed inside a garbage bag that McIntire took from the residence. Adele Craven was still there when McIntire and Pryor left."

When Ms. Craven pleaded guilty, Summe immediately sentenced her to life in prison.

After the hearing, Ms. Craven was returned to the Kenton County Jail, where she has been since her arrest a week after the killing. Soon, she will be moved to the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women in Pewee Valley to serve her sentence.

She will receive credit for time served, and likely will meet the Parole Board for the first time in late 2020.

Summe then went into the jury room to tell the 14-member panel, who had sat through the six-week trial, that their services no longer were needed. Ms. Craven had pleaded guilty, she told them. Immediately, they took a poll. All 14 members were convinced of her guilt.

Then, they came into the courtroom to commiserate with Stephen Craven's family and express their sympathy.

But despite their unanimous vote, jurors were undecided on the death penalty. And Bill Craven said for the first time that he was not in favor of killing the mother of his nephews.

He said he held his tongue during the proceedings because he didn't want to hurt the prosecution's case. But, he said, he would have told jurors not to put Adele Craven on Death Row.

"I would have said we don't want the death penalty," Bill Craven said.

"Steve would not have wanted it. For Steve's legacy, and for Dan and Joe, we would not have wanted it."

The case of Adele Craven

Jury must decide role in killing of husband

LEXINGTON - Stephen Craven suffered 12 blows to the head from a crowbar, but he still breathed.

Prosecutor Luke Morgan says Adele Craven heard her husband gasp, shoved a pistol into a hit man's hand, and ordered him to finish the job. When that bullet failed to silence the Delta Air Lines pilot, he says, Ms. Craven reloaded the .38 caliber revolver and issued an order to shoot twice more.

Ms. Craven, a licensed mortician, faces the death penalty if convicted of complicity to murder Mr. Craven, 38, in July 2000. He was found face down in a pool of blood in the basement of his Edgewood home.

She would become only the fourth woman in Kentucky history sent to death row.

Defense attorney Deanna Dennison, famed for getting Covington resident Michael Funk acquitted of murder charges in the 1990s, contends Ms. Craven loved her husband and had nothing to do with the killing.

In the defense's view, Mr. Craven was killed by a hit man hired by the handyman who remodeled the Craven basement. The handyman, Russell "Rusty" McIntire, was off his anti-depressant medication, drinking heavily and obsessed with Ms. Craven, the defense says. The theory is he stalked her, spied on her and seduced her, but when Ms. Craven ultimately rejected him, Mr. McIntire decided to kill Mr. Craven and hired the hit man on his own.

As the Fayette County jury decides which of these widely divergent accounts to believe, the trial - now in its sixth week - is already the longest-running criminal case in Fayette County in recent memory.

The cost of having to conduct the trial 80 miles south of Cincinnati - the trial was moved because of pretrial publicity - is creating a price tag much higher than other capital cases.

Jurors are being asked to sort out two starkly opposite claims - Adele Craven either plotted to kill her husband and participated, or she had nothing to do with it and wasn't even there when it happened.

Two and a half years after Stephen Craven took his final breath, 10 women and two men are about to decide who was ultimately responsible for his death.

Mr. Morgan and co-prosecutor Christina Brown, both assistant attorneys general, spent three weeks calling five dozen witnesses and entering 229 exhibits. The courtroom has several black trunks filled with evidence, transcripts and other items used in the trial. The defense alone had 2,000 pages of documentation.

The prosecution called Ms. Craven's beautician, her marriage counselor, her neighbors and her sister to try to establish that she was in a troubled marriage, talked of having her husband killed and acted strange on the day of the killing. But their star witness was Mr. McIntire.

"I talked with her (Adele) about different ways to ambush Stephen," said Mr. McIntire, who rarely looked at Ms. Craven while on the stand. "Options included on a bike trail, on his boat and in the house. She (Adele) even discussed killing him herself. She told me if she ever got the chance, she would shoot Steve."

Mr. Morgan contends Ms. Craven duped her lover, Mr. McIntire, 34, of Erlanger, into hiring a hit man after she failed to recruit anyone for the job herself. Mr. McIntire, a Delta Air Lines baggage handler by night and a handyman by day, had begun an affair with Ms. Craven after he was hired to remodel the Cravens' walkout basement.

Mr. McIntire, the prosecution says, hired Ronald Scott Pryor, 35, of Independence to be the triggerman. He hid behind a sofa in the basement as Ms. Craven lured her husband down the stairs by yelling, "Honey, the ferret is loose!" The Craven family kept the pet caged in the attached garage.

Ms. Craven and Mr. McIntire locked the doors to the basement so Mr. Craven wouldn't be able to escape the crowbar-swinging Mr. Pryor, the prosecution says. To ensure the neighbors on their quiet cul-de-sac wouldn't hear a yell for help, Mr. McIntire then turned up the stereo in his truck parked outside.

In April, a Kenton County jury recommended that Mr. Pryor, described at trial by his defense attorneys as a "slow thinker," be sentenced to death. Kenton Judge Patricia Summe must decide whether to follow the jury's request or sentence Mr. Pryor to a lesser punishment during a sentencing hearing.

Mr. McIntire turned against Ms. Craven - a woman he had called his "soul mate" - testifying against her in exchange for a plea deal of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

That set off Mr. McIntire, who had emotional problems, she said. In one angry outburst, he had even choked a fellow Delta employee, Ms. Dennison said.

"He was losing her and he knew it," Ms. Dennison said.

Mr. McIntire had access to the house and could have broken into the family's gun closet and taken Mr. Craven's pistol, she said.

The night before the murder, Ms. Dennison said, Mr. McIntire bought two crowbars at Home Depot. She suggested that Mr. McIntire and Mr. Pryor ganged up on Stephen Craven together while Ms. Craven was out of the house getting her youngest son from a neighbor.

She had no idea that her husband was being bludgeoned, Ms. Dennison said, and never would have arranged such a brutal murder when her children could have walked in on the scene.

Mr. Craven was struck 12 times in the head with a crowbar and shot three times in the head, the county coroner testified.

"Rusty implicated me to save his own skin," Ms. Craven said before breaking down in tears. "He is betraying me."

Ms. Craven testified that though Mr. Craven was a very "structured" person who complained about her weight (125 pounds) and spending habits, she loved him and would never kill him.

Ms. Dennison, using a similar tactic to that which helped destroy the murder case against convicted child molester Michael Funk, questioned the timeline of the murder.

Ms. Dennison called a 14-year-old neighbor girl to the stand who testified she saw Mr. Craven standing in the doorway of his home at 10:50 a.m. on the day of the killing.

That would put Mr. Craven's death about an hour later than what the prosecution claims, opening the door to the defense claim that Ms. Craven was running errands at the time.

Despite being held in Lexington, the trial has been attended by former jurors from Mr. Pryor's trial, attorneys from throughout the state and even police cadets. Mr. Craven's parents, both retired, have been in the courtroom almost every day. Members of Ms. Craven's family, many of whom live in California, have rarely been present.

The Cravens' two sons, Joseph, 8, and Daniel, 11, now live with a paternal uncle and have not been in attendance. Family members say the children have not been told of the full circumstances surrounding their father's death.

The state took so much interest in the Craven case that it is being prosecuted directly out of Attorney General Ben Chandler's office.

The state is also taking a gamble in asking for the death penalty. Only three women have ever been sent to Kentucky's death row, and the death sentence was overruled in two of those cases.

Although it might be months for the final figure to be tallied, the Craven case is costing thousands of dollars more than the typical murder prosecution.

The trial was moved from Covington to Lexington, forcing the state to fly or drive in nearly every witness called by both the prosecution and defense.

Witnesses have been flown in from California and Kansas. The state is paying for Ms. Craven's defense after she was declared indigent. Kenton County workers are racking up overtime for testimony about the investigation.

The judge, two bailiffs and a court clerk are all staying overnight in Lexington - at the tony Gratz Park Inn - as the trial moves along slowly and meticulously.

The jury was sequestered Wednesday night and will begin deliberations at 9 a.m. today. Closing arguments Wednesday lasted from 9:30 a.m. until shortly after 8 p.m., with a one-hour break for lunch.

KEY PLAYERS
 

Adele Craven

This stay-at-home Edgewood mom, 39, could be sent to death row if convicted of conspiring with her lover to hire a hit man to kill her husband. Raised in California, she studied mortuary science before her 1989 marriage.
 

Russell "Rusty" McIntire

The 34-year-old from Erlanger, a Delta Air Lines baggage handler and handyman, is the prosecution's star witness. Ms. Craven's former lover, he agreed to testify against her in a deal to avoid the death penalty. His wife has filed for divorce.
 

Ronald Scott Pryor

Mr. Pryor, 35, was found guilty of murder and was recommended for the death penalty by a jury. The hired hit man from Independence bludgeoned and shot Mr. Craven.
 

Deanna Dennison

Ms. Craven's co-defense attorney made a name for herself by successfully defending Michael Funk. He was ultimately acquitted in 1994 of murdering Jenny SueIles, 7, of Covington after three trials over a nearly five-year span.

Patricia Summe

Elected in 1994, she was Kenton County's first female circuit judge and Kentucky's fifth. She is presiding in only her second death penalty case in the Adele Craven case; her first was Mr. Pryor's.
 

Luke Morgan