OROVILLE ? It will be at least two more months before a twice-convicted wife killer will learn his fate in an Oroville courtroom.
Gerald Frank Stanley had been ordered put to death in 1983 for the sniper-style slaying of his fourth wife in Lake County, while he was on parole for killing his second wife.
The trial had been moved to Butte County on a change of venue due to prejudicial publicity where the last murder occurred.
In March 2008, a federal judge in Sacramento, hearing a writ filed on the convicted killer”s behalf, stayed Stanley”s execution after it was learned one of the trial jurors who declared him mentally competent had failed to disclose the fact she had been the prior victim of violence herself.
The case has been remanded back to Butte County on the issue of whether its possible to determine if Stanley was legally competent more than two decades ago and can finally be executed, or instead will serve the rest of his life in prison.
Because the 64-year-old condemned prisoner was too ill to be transported for a status hearing in the case Tuesday, once again he appeared via a two-way way video conference hookup between the Butte County Superior Court and San Quentin prison”s Death Row.
Although Stanley had written the court about the possibility of having the competency issue decided in Lake County, his court-appointed attorney, Dennis Hoptowit, refused to give his required consent Tuesday.
Lake County District Attorney Jon Hopkins said the court will revisit the issue of changing the venue back to Lake County at the next hearing, Dec. 1.
“I can see at every twist and turn there are obstacles thrown up that prevent this case from moving on,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins doesn”t expect to resolve every issue overnight because the case started almost three decades ago and with such complicated problems, the court has to be patient, he said.
“In spite of the fact there”s been no resolution of any major issues, every time you move a little closer,” Hopkins said.
The case will be back in court on Dec. 1 on a motion brought by the convicted killer to remove his lawyer and allow Stanley to represent himself.
In the meantime, Hoptowit asked the judge to order the warden at San Quentin not to continue interfering with Stanley”s legal mail and phone calls.
Hoptowit said he has not been able to communicate with Stanley since mid-August.
The convicted killer alleges prison guards are withholding his legal correspondence until he agrees to cooperate in recovering the remains of his third wife, Diana Lynn, who has been missing since 1980.
In a letter to the Chico Enterprise-Record earlier this year, Stanley admitted he buried his common-law spouse in a small creek near the town of Manton on the Tehama-Shasta county border.
Stanley claimed in the letter she had committed suicide and that he chose to break his long silence about where her body is buried before his own death.
It was less than a year after his third wife disappeared that Stanley was arrested for killing his fourth wife with a rifle in Lake County.
Judge Gerald Hermansen told Stanley Tuesday he won”t order the prison to stop interfering with his legal correspondence until the California Department of Corrections has an opportunity to present its side of the issue.
