Last Updated on 2/9/2010

Published on 11/19/2009

Today is expected to be the final day of the Stephen Stanko death penalty trial in Conway.
On Monday, he was convicted of murder and armed robbery for killing and stealing the truck of 74-year-old Henry Lee Turner of Conway in April, 2005.
This phase of the trial is to determine if he will be sentenced to life in prison or to death for the crimes.
He has already been sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend, Laura Ling, in Murrells Inlet the same day Turner was killed.
The state completed its case Wednesday and the defense is presenting witnesses today.
Check here for updates through the day.
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1:04 p.m — Stanko addressed the jury and started by apologizing to the Turner family.
“I don’t know if it will do any good. I am sorry. I hope someday they will accept it,” Stanko said nervously as he fidgeted with the podium.
He said he and Henry Turner were friend “and much more.”
He said they would ride motorcycles and played pool quite often.
He then attacked the state’s case.
“Mr. Hembree talked about the experts. I know we were honest about my brain. If you are going to try to kill a man, be honest. Do it fairly,” he said.
Stanko’s long, rambling remarks had him talking about the evolution of cell phones, the movie Minority Report and his family.
There had been testimony about no one from Stanko’s family in the courtroom for support.
“I did not want my family here,” he said, adding he also did not want the Turner’s family in the courtroom. “I don’t want to hurt anyone else.”
He tried to plead with the jury to put more weight in the brain defect evidence presented.
“My life is not worth anything but what happened in this instance is worth a lot,” he said, referring to the new technology that was presented during the trial.
He also went into an accusatory rant about Assistant Solicitor Fran Humphries.
“Mr. Humphries has a four-and-a-half inch knife right now. Talk about breaking the rules. And h has walked by me 25 or 30 times,” he said.
Stanko, as he concluded his remarks, apologized again.
“I hope the hate and anger they have can be cured with the memory of Henry. This wasn’t right. It wasn’t. I am sorry.”
Stanko, as he was talking, showed the jury a brace he has been wearing under his shirt throughout the trial.
The brace can be triggered by a remote control to shock Stanko if he were to try to escape or cause other problems.

12:21 p.m. — Stanko is expected to address the jury soon. Hembree had a word of warning for the jury about what they will hear.
“This will be THE performance of his long, horrible career,” Hembree said.

12:17 p.m. — Hembree: “When a person’s conduct is so evil and brutal....that person gives up the right to remain among us. This is that conduct.”

11:50 a.m. — Solicitor Greg Hembree, during his closing argument, reminded the jury they swore under oath they could impose the death penalty given the right evidence and under the right circumstances.
“This is that evidence and these are those circumstances,” Hembree said.
Hembree said the defense case can be boiled down to one theory.
“They say because I do bad things, I have a personality disorder and I am crazy. And if I am crazy, I don’t have to suffer the consequences for the things I do,” Hembree said to the jury. “Under that logic, no one should ever be held accountable. That’s a great strategy for someone charged with murder.”
Hembree had another explanation for Stanko’s actions.
“He is just plain evil. He has something inside that makes him evil,” Hembree said. “He likes it and is very very very good at hiding it.”

11:22 a.m. — Stanko says he will address the jury during the closing arguments. The judge warned him he must stick to what was presented during the punishment portion of the trial since he chose not to take the stand where he could be cross examined.

11:17 a.m. The final defense witness, Dr. Evelyn Califf, a Myrtle Beach counselor, examined Stanko’s life at the request of the defense.
She did so by examining as many of his family photos she could find, as well as talking to the members of his family who would speak with her.
Califf said she also based her opinions on conversations with Stanko, doctor’s reports, e-mails from one of his sisters and newspaper articles.
She said Stanko’s father — and his sister Cindy — refused to talk.
She showed the jury a series of photos taken throughout Stanko’s life.
She pointed out Stanko was smiling in all of the pictures taken when he was young but by the time he entered high school, the smile had disappeared.

10:20 a.m. — The defense spent most of its testimony time Thursday presenting witnesses who knew Stanko as a child and teenager.
Wanda Brooks, a Goose Creek neighbor of the Stanko family, said he was “very friendly and outgoing.”
She said she treated him like one of her own kids because he was at her house so often.
Brooks described the Stanko household as “very unfriendly.” She said before Stanko’s mother died, she was talk to her when she was outside.
“I hardly ever went into the house,” she said.
One of Stanko’s high school teachers, Clauirice Wenz , said he was a student “who stood out for his achievements at school and the way he interacted with me and his peers.”
John Fulmer, a retired Goose Creek High School principal, said if Stanko had stayed as he was as a high schooler, he would have been a successful college graduate with a good career.
“He was in the top 25 of his class,” Fulmer said.

9:36 a.m. —  Herbert Shealy,  a counselor who has worked with Stanko since he has been in prison, said Stanko “is an exceptional inmate among the death row population.”
He said Stanko is often “the buffer” between inmates and the prison administration when problems arise.
“He is the leader on death row,” Shealy said.

9:30 a.m. — Barbara Boland, one of Stanko’s middle school teachers — now a Christian counselor — said she has visited him in prison, the last time being in 2008.
She said she believes Stanko has turned his life around.
“He is very remorseful. I do not believe he has jailhouse religion. I feel he is actually saved,” she said. “I believe it’s legitimate”

9:01 a.m. — On behalf of the defense, Dr. James Thrasher, a psychiatrist who examined Stanko in 2006.
He said when Ling was murdered, Stanko had an anti-social personality and “did not have the capacity to know the difference between right and wrong.”