Janna Skelton
jskelton indygov.org

Hi. Robbin Stewart here. It's likely you've been trying to reach me by phone.
I'm at a new job where I can't use the phone during the day,
and I haven't figured out how to retrieve voice mail messages
- I'm not skilled at this new fangled tech stuff. Anyway.
I am in training at the new job, and might not be able to get time off to attend Lonnie's trial. I'm working on that part.
But I figured I'd write up what we've discussed, so you have something to get into the record.

Victim Impact Statement

My name is Robbin Stewart. 8/11/1960. In 2003, I lived at 227 N Temple, a block from where Lonnie lived at 52 N Tacoma. We met when he and his step-brother walked by
my house pushing a lawn mower. I asked them if they wanted to mow some lawns for me.
They worked one day, and worked hard as long as I was there to watch.
The next day they asked for payment for some more work, but they hadn't done the work.
After that I told them I had no more work for them and that I was busy. That day they stole my lawnmower, $260 from Walmart.
I next saw Lonnie about a month later. I found out later he had been on home detention, cut off his ankle bracelet and stole a gun from his mother.
He came over and had various stories about my missing lawn mower which is why I let him in to talk.
He tried to sell me the gun. I declined. He asked to borrow money. I said no.
He said he was desperate, and pretended to be suicidal. He tried various cons to try to get money out of me, which didn't work. He said he needed the money for a bus ticket to Kentucky - probably a lie.
He is, while a killer, primarily a con man - he'd rather cheat you out of a dollar than kill you for it, but he wants the dollar either way.
He then pulled the gun on me and demanded my wallet, which had $90.
He said he was going to kill me, but instead he ran one direction while I ran the other. I think this was mid-July. Joell Palmer, my housemate, can confirm these events - I spoke to him shortly afterwards.
I next saw him in November.
Someone knocked on the door. I opened the door, saw that it was him and an accomplice, and slammed the door. I ran to the phone and called 911. He went around the house and barged in the back door. He pulled a knife on me and went through my pockets, taking $35. I told him I had called 911, and they ran away. A cop came by about 2 minutes later. I reported all of the above to the officer, who apparently never filed a report, perhaps because i refused, as is my custom, to give out my ssn without a privacy act statement.
I suspect that Lonnie was concerned about my being a witness to his earlier robbery of me.
The next day he came back, with his step brother and another man. I was in my upstairs bedroom, perhaps sleeping, when they came up the stairs.
They confronted me. lonnie was the clear ringleader; the others simply followed his lead and his cues.
Lonnie had a knife, as did the other man. They started ransacking my room looking for anything of value - there wasn't much.
Lonnie twisted my arm behind my back causing extreme pain and put his knife to my eye, in order to make me tell him where my gun was, a 38 revolver he knew I had found while mowing a lawn. I did. He pointed the gun at me.
I'm leaving out the part about the sexual assault.
For about 15 minutes they went through my house, frustrated that I own nothing of value. People sometimes get the wrong idea that because I am a lawyer, I have money.
I was escorted downstairs with a knife at my throat.
Lonnie said to the other guy, "Be careful. He's tricky." I am.
Lonnie raised the gun and said he was going to kill me.
I have a bit of martial arts training from when I was a grad student at Naropa Institute. I felt it was time to do something - so far I had been cooperating completely. I used my foot to bang loudly on the wall, alerting my housemate Joell, who is about 300 pounds of muscle and usually carries a battleaxe.
They got scared and ran out the back door.
We called police. The police response this time was very good.
But as usual, there was no followup and no investigation.
The next night, they returned. I had by then moved in with friends in Cumberland.
Palmer saw them running from the house, and the door had been tampered with.
I went to the east coast for a week.
While I was away, somebody, probably Lonnie and his crew, broke out the back door window, etnered the house through a side window, and made several visits to the now empty house, either looking for me, or still hoping to find something worth stealing.
I came back in early December - I was trying to find paperwork to replace a lost or stolen driver's license. In the interest of combatting terrorism, the state has made it very difficult to replace a stolen license.
I looked up and there was a person with a ski mask and a knife. from his build, it wasn't Lonnie, but might have been the other man mentioned above. At this point I became frustrated and angry, and started to take the knife away from the man.
I try to be a christian and practice forgiveness and nonviolence, but I also have limited patience.
He ran away. I then returned to cumberland for the next several months.
No followup by IPD. I met with my lawyer and discussed the possibility of a civil suit, but he wasn't interested, and it wasn't something I was emotionally prepared to do by myself.
It's now several years later. I've been gradually emerging from a depressed period and trying to get done some things I put off. One of the things I have been depressed about is stuggling with the ethical dilemma of whether to kill Lonnie. I have not done so, but have thought about it. Any time he is not locked up, my life is in danger. As a practical matter, if not a legal one, killing him would have been self-defense. My personal philosophy allows for self-defense, but as a disfavored remedy. I try to live nonviolently at all times.
It is my understanding he has killed some innocent people in order to steal a few dollars.


I tracked down Lonnie's address as being 52 N Tacoma, not 58 as I'd thought, and did a public records search and found some info on Lonnie. My lawyer alerted me to Lonnie's current murder trial, at which point I contacted the court staff and got the prosecutor's info and we met and discussed the case and my situation.

Lonnie is a dangerous man. He is a sociopath, with no concern for others. That's a lay opinion, not a diagnosis.
It would not be safe to leave him free.
If imprisoned, he will be a danger to other inamtes, and they will be a danger to him. Perhaps someday he will grow up and become a human being. To the extent possible, he should be isolated, and given access to educational materials.
While he is one of my worst enemies, I would not want him subjected to unconstitutional conditions. I personally have been tortured in Marion County jails, and would not want that to happen to anyone else.

I am currently scheduled to work on the day of his sentencing hearing - the first time in 5 years I've had a paying job - and may not be able to attend, so I've made this written statement which I ask the court to consider.

I attest and affirm that the above statement is true to the best of my knowledge.


____________
Robbin Stewart.