Killer sentenced to 4 years

By Doug Russell, News Editor

STIGLER, Sept. 24 — No matter what people said, no matter what a jury decided, Robin Rea never believed that Jason Leon Steward was acting in self defense the night he smashed a barstool against her oldest son’s head.

And she felt vindicated Monday, when the judge presiding over the case against Steward made it clear that he didn’t believe it either.

“I heard the same evidence the jury heard and, to me, the theory of self defense is not believable,” Judge Willard Driesel said before pronouncing sentence on the 21-year-old laborer, who was convicted in August of first-degree manslaughter for causing the death of 24-year-old Thomas Brent Jordan.

Steward contended that he’d hit Jordan with a barstool at a New Year’s Eve party on Jan. 1 because he was afraid of the bigger man. Jordan died from his injuries Jan. 5.

Doctor James Meissen, who was working in the emergency room of Haskell County Hospital that night, said a CT scan showed at least five fractures in Jordan’s skull, including fractures to the frontal bone, cheek bone and temporal bone.

“I don’t understand how Brent suffered such extensive injuries, six skull fractures, and nobody else had even a scratch — not a bruise,” Rea said. “He did not deserve what happened to him. Brent had no marks on him to indicate that he had hit anyone or even a mark that showed he tried to block the bar stool.”

Driesel also commented on the lack of defensive wounds, stating that, instead of believing Steward’s self-defense claim, he believed instead that the high school dropout had deliberately blind-sided Jordan with the stool.

Jordan’s family members said in written statements filed with the court that, even in death, they are proud that he’s been able to help others continue living. Jordan was an organ donor.

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