Vernon Steward, 58, plead guilty to Voluntary Manslaughter in the death of Ms. Lisa Dorothy Blackmon. The Honorable Robert T. Sumner, Superior Court Judge, imposed a sentence of 108 to 139 months in prison. This sentence is in the aggravated range of North Carolina’s statutory structured sentencing guidelines.
Ms. Blackmon was killed by Stewart on April 1, 2007, and was indicted by the Grand Jury for her murder the same month. Steward was originally tried for the murder of Ms. Blackmon in Mecklenburg County Superior Court in February 2009. The jury in that trial was unable to reach an unanimous verdict and a mistrial was declared by the presiding judge.
