DALLAS RAY STEVENS | Child Murder, Sex Abuse, Rape, Kidnapping | Raped the 12yo daughter of a woman who had been his pen pal while he was serving time in an Idaho prison | Autographed Postcard Signed

Dallas Ray Stevens. 4.75” x 5.5” Postcard. Salem, OR. Pmk: October 16, 2006.

• Classification: Murderer

• Characteristics: Kidnapping—Rape—Child molester

• Number of victims: 1

• Date of murder: February 16, 1988

• Date of birth: October 31, 1952

• Victim profile: Nicole Lynae Edwards, 5 (his niece)

• Method of murder: Strangulation

• Location: Linn County, Oregon, USA

• Status: Sentenced to death on January 18, 1989. Re-sentenced to life in prison in 1998ⁱ

Child Rape/Murder

On February 26, 1988, at about 3:30 p.m., defendant arrived at a friend's house in Creswell. Ms. Edwards was there with her four daughters, ages eight, five, four, and two. Edwards and defendant had known each other for 10 years; defendant was married to Edwards' estranged husband's sister.

Defendant gave Edwards a ride to the store to get a part for her car, which was running poorly. According to defendant, he agreed to give Edwards a ride in return for her help in locating drugs for him. Defendant testified that they stopped at a friend's house, where he injected methamphetamine and smoked a small amount of marijuana. Edwards denied that she was involved in looking for drugs and denied that they stopped en route. Edwards then retrieved her car from Creswell and asked defendant to follow her home in case she had car trouble. The eight-year-old and the five-year-old asked to ride with defendant, whom they knew, and the four-year-old joined her sisters. The youngest girl rode with her mother.

On the way home, Edwards stopped at a store for cigarettes. She testified that defendant, who was following her, appeared to stop or, at least, to slow down. When Edwards emerged from the store, however, defendant and the three girls were gone. She drove home and waited for defendant. When he did not arrive, she drove back along roads that she thought he might have taken, looking for his car. At 3 a.m., she called the police.

Lane County Deputy Sheriff House met Edwards at about 3:30 a.m. on February 27 at a gas station in Creswell. According to House, Edwards was extremely upset. Edwards said that she had not given defendant permission to take the girls and did not know where defendant lived.

A search for the missing girls followed. The eight-year-old and the four-year-old were found in defendant's house, at a dairy farm, shortly after 7 a.m. They reported physical and sexual abuse, which their condition confirmed; both girls were naked, and the younger of the two had bruises around her eyes. The older girl told the police that defendant had taken their clothes away.

The police located defendant elsewhere on the farm at 8:18 a.m. and, after they convinced him to drop a knife that he was holding, arrested him at 8:25 a.m. An officer advised defendant of his Miranda rights; he said that he understood them. When questioned about the missing five-year-old, defendant told inconsistent stories.

The search for the five-year-old resumed, throughout the farm. At 9:26 a.m., two officers went back into defendant's house. They found the girl's body in the attic at 9:30 a.m. After verifying that the girl was dead, the officers left the house. No one entered it again until after defendant gave his consent to a search, shortly after noon.

*96 Defendant at first denied that he had done anything to the girls. After being confronted with the surviving girls' accusations and the discovery of the five-year-old's body, he admitted that he had killed the five-year-old by strangling her with a sock and stabbing her twice. He also said that he had used methamphetamine the night before and that he "was fuzzed up like crazy."

At trial, Dr. Buchanan, the doctor who treated the eight-year-old and the four-year-old at the hospital emergency room on the morning of February 27, 1988, was called as a witness. She testified that her examination revealed evidence of assault and sexual abuse that matched the older child's descriptions. She also found physical evidence that supported what the younger child said about abuse by defendant.

At the conclusion of the guilt phase of defendant's trial, he was convicted of all the crimes charged in the indictment: three counts of aggravated murder; four counts of first-degree kidnapping; two counts of first-degree sexual abuse; one count of first-degree rape; and two counts of second-degree assault. With respect to the aggravated murder convictions, the jury answered "yes" to the three statutory questions, and defendant received a sentence of death. He also was sentenced to three 30-year prison terms, two 10-year terms, and one 5-year term on the non-capital felonies.ⁱⁱ

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