JEFFREY STONE - Aged 15 years - Attalla, Alabama (USA)

The Gasden Times

Friday, November 21, 2008 at 2:18 p.m.

Rock for Stone concert Sunday

A concert is planned to celebrate the life of Jeffrey Blake Stone, a 15-year-old Sardis High student who was slain early this year.

Stone was reported missing March 24 and his family and others searched for him for 14 weeks, in which time their lives were put on hold.

On July 1, the search ended when Stone’s remains were discovered in a neighbor’s freezer.

The idea for the concert came from a Guntersville-based band, Wasted Mason, of whom Stone was a fan.

The band contacted the family to encourage them to lean on their community for support.

“(The) family has been victims of an unbelievable crime, and we have faith that they will persevere in time and with the help of the good in the community ... it will take some time and effort from everyone to put this together, but it will be a labor of love for all of us,” said a representative of Wasted Mason.

The concert is from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday at Convention Hall, 344 S. First St., Gadsden.

The headliner is Jeff Cook and the Allstar Goodtime Band

Cook was a member of the country music super group Alabama of Fort Payne.

Other performances will be a group from Sardis High School, Wasted Mason and the Wayne Mills Band.

There will be displays from local businesses, merchandise from each band and an auction before the final performance.

The concert is an opportunity for the community to come together for something positive in the spirit of fun.

“This event is not meant to dwell on hardships, but to allow everyone to move forward and restore balance,” one of the coordinators said.

Lynn Stone, Blake Stone’s stepmother, said the family is thankful for those who want to do something to support their family.

“The unending searching broke us in more ways than one,” she said. “It’s been people such as these musicians who have begun to restore my faith in the depths of goodness that I always believed was inherent.”

Tickets are on sale at $12 in advance and $15 at the door.

For more information or to order tickets, call 547-4814 or go to www.RockForStone.com.

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20081121/NEWS/811210295/1016/NEWS?Title=Rock_for_Stone_concert_Sunday

Posted by Lynn Stone

12th December 2008

There's a hearing tomorrow morning, 12 Dec 08, for reducing the bond of Smiley so that he can be released to his parents who allowed him to keep marijuana in their refrigerator. There's also a hearing for Nathan on Monday, 15 Dec 008, to grant him 'youthful offender' status. From neighbors, I have heard that Smiley's mother plans on taking him 'somewhere else' so that her 'baby boy' will not have to go back to jail. As to youthful offender status for Nathan, he cannot be held more than 3 years, if granted and adjudicated guilty! We need the people in the state of Alabama to protest to both issues. Any help is appreciated. Judge for Nathan Lee is Hall. Judge for Andrew Smiley is Kimberly. Thank you for your support. We're living in fear here now.

Lynn Stone.

http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-3834.html

Posted by Lynn Stone

13th December 2008

at smiley's hearing yesterday, his attys presented an obscure law that has never had cases (precedent) for using it (AL rules of criminal procedure, rule 7.6).

basically, the bond set down at his initial appearance (with judge owen) - the $142,500 property bond - is to be transferred to the same charge prosecuted by indictment...'unless, for good cause, the judge shall order revocation or modification of the conditions of release....' this means, of course, that smiley would have no further bond applied to him, negating the $250,000 cash bond set down after the indictment. owen really messed us up.

judge kimberly granted the d.a. 5 days to file a brief in respoonse.

jeff had taken 3 vacation days from work this week to attend the hearings but the y.o. hearing for nathan was changed to monday, the 15th, and he cannot attend. we need to have a presence, even if only by writing to judge hall, to underscore the need to deny y.o. status to nathan. we're working on presenting the relevant issues in hopes that the judge will consider them and deny such status.

andy doesn't want to stay in our home if either of them is out. and, as neighbors have pointed out, since blake's murder no children are out on the streets in our area anymore. so sad.

thank you all so much for your support. it means so much to us as we have pretty much isolated ourselves from the public community. the profound impact of these two men's actions has decimated our lives as we knew it, no matter how 'normally' we try to live them. your site is the only one in which i feel comfortable sharing. i thank you all, not just for 'being there,' but just for being. jeff and i are strongly committed to 'having each other's backs' and dealing with all the emotional issues that arise in a family wherein one feels 'victimized'...a helpless position...so we do all we can to respond with action that moves us out of that place. that's why it's so important to us to know we're not 'going it alone.'

i quit my new job b/c i just felt unable to focus and could not bear the negative energies coming in from that environment, so felt i was doing a disservice to the role. with the help of a wonderful therapist in b'ham, i've been 'processing,' which helps in the 'cure.' the past nine months have felt much like being in a movie theater, watching a really bad movie - and the exit doors are locked!

i know,too, i've been negligent in keeping up my communication with Roamer, and i feel vey badly about that. i can only beg forgiveness of the woman who has been so strong for me throughout this trauma. and i do promise that i will do all i can to give back to her when my energies are restored.

the strongest, most poignant lesson i personally have learned is this: 'a real friend walks in when the rest of the world walks out.' you all have been real friends. that counts more than words here can express. thank you.

lynn

http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-3834.html

Posted by Lynn Stone:

hi all,
just arrived home from court. judge hall would not allow anyone other than family and deputies in the room on the state side and defense attys and nathan on the other side. glad you didn't waste a trip, Nicky, and i'll PM you later about andy. thank you so much for caring. and i hope you're feeling better soon.

judge hall denied youthful offender status to nathan lee! thank goodness! he was immediately arraigned and his atty then pled him 'not guilty' to the murder, to abuse of a corpse, and to an indictment by the grand jury just last week (against both nathan and smiley) for possession of marijuana. the next event scheduled for nathan is a status conference on 3 april 09 at 11a.m. wherein the d.a. and nathan's attys will discuss their readiness for trial. both sides stated they are still gathering evidence and are awaiting reports on such. on nathan's side, an expert witness (probably a psychiatrist hired by the defense) still needs to report.

now we're awaiting the decision at the end of the week to determine if smiley will be able to get out on the $142,500 property bond rendered during the appearance hearing by owen for the murder charge, with the addition of the added charge of abuse of a corpse. bond guidelines for this charge range from $2500 to $15,000. but these are guidelines and bond is solely at the discretion of the judge. i discussed the lee county case with the d.a. today and will likely go to lee county d.a. on wednesday to get a summary report to compare to previous testimony in lee county. smiley's atty is trying to impugn smiley's signed statement, saying it was written by the investigators who said they did so b/c smiley's handwriting was so bad and there was no audio or videotape of the interrogation. smiley signed it, tho. again, his attys entered NGRI pleas at his arraignment a few weeks ago. he may not come to trial until next september! aaarrrgghh.

so we're satisfied with today's decision but dread any decision to let smiley out at the end of the week. after all, how can we ever live in peace - and without fear - knowing our son's murderer is right down the road from us? this is a man who has admittedly killed neighborhood dogs and cats with a bow and arrow for the 'thrill.' thank goodness we have our 5 dogs as an early warning system.

i sincerely thank all of you for having our backs. you've given me the spirit to continue the fight. i just don't settle easily into a victim's role and action is what keeps me going. without all of you, well, i just don't know how i'd keep motivated. from the bottom of my heart, i'm so thankful for all of you.

lynn.

http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-3834.html

Posted by Lynn Stone

6th January 2009

Thanks so much to all of you for your supportive efforts re smiley's attempt to get out on the original appearance bond. Fortunately, all of your efforts in writing/calling Judge Kimberley seemed to have an effect as he maintained the $250,000 cash bond from the murder indictment and added a $15,000 cash bond for the 'abuse of a corpse' indictment. Hopefully, he can't get hold of that kind of monies, altho I'm sure his atty will appeal. But without all of you and your time, emotions, and efforts, this may not have happened this way. You've save us from having to live with one of our son's murderers living right around the corner from us. From your mouths to God's ear...and He must have passed it on to the judge!

http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-3834.html

Posted by Lynn Stone

22nd April 2009

Hearing, trial, and case conference dates for both nathan and smiley keep getting changed. All the evidence is still not in, e.g., nathan's computer is still being analyzed at Quantico, still some questions on identifying fingerprints, etc. We still maintain contact w/Marcus Reid, the asst DA. But, right now, there's nothing new. There is some expectation that nathan will enter a blind plea with expert witness testimoney from an 'independent psychiatrist' who may deem him 'mentally impaired' (not NGRI) so that he'd be under the purview of federal guidelines and receive a reduced sentence, e.g., 20 years. smiley's parents appealed the court's decision to maintain the $250K cash bond at indictment but that was denied. Don't know if they're going to go to supreme court with it, trying to get him out of jail until trial. But the evidence of flight risk should prevail, based on his mother's statements to others that were entered into evidence at the first hearing to protest the bond. Needless to say, a 'stay' was granted on Jeff's civil suit against nathan b/c he hasn't been adjudicated yet. In smiley's case, he never responded so a default motion was granted and the judge advised our attys that $7 million was an 'appropriate amount to seek.' big deal - smiley doesn't have anything in his name. He was living in a basement apt in his parent's house and they paid for everything he had. So it's really moot.

http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-3834-p-2.html

Gadsden Times

5 November 2010

Lee sentenced in teen's 2008 shooting death

Millican sentenced Lee to 30 years on the murder charge and 10 years on the abuse of a corpse charge and ordered the sentences to be served concurrently.

Millican said the plea agreement was reached among the district attorney's office, Lee and the Stone family.

“Had this case been tried to its conclusion and gone to trial, the sentence would have been severely different,” Millican said.

Reid said the agreement was reached so the family could have “finality.”

He said the maximum sentence for the murder charge would have been life in prison and Lee would have been eligible for parole in about the same number of years with that sentence as he will for the 30-year sentence.

“And the family avoids the trauma of a trial,” he said.


..... Smiley is awaiting trial.

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20101105/NEWS/101109869?p=2&tc=pg