By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEXINGTON - Stephen Craven suffered 12 blows to the head from a crowbar, but he still breathed.

Prosecutor Luke Morgan says Adele Craven heard her husband gasp, shoved a pistol into a hit man's hand, and ordered him to finish the job. When that bullet failed to silence the Delta Air Lines pilot, he says, Ms. Craven reloaded the .38 caliber revolver and issued an order to shoot twice more.

Ms. Craven, a licensed mortician, faces the death penalty if convicted of complicity to murder Mr. Craven, 38, in July 2000. He was found face down in a pool of blood in the basement of his Edgewood home.

She would become only the fourth woman in Kentucky history sent to death row.

TRIAL VIDEO

Watch WCPO Video of Adele Craven and her boyfriend's cellmate being questioned during the trial.

KEY PLAYERS

Adele Craven: This stay-at-home Edgewood mom, 39, could be sent to death row if convicted of conspiring with her lover to hire a hit man to kill her husband. Raised in California, she studied mortuary science before her 1989 marriage. Russell "Rusty" McIntire: The 34-year-old from Erlanger, a Delta Air Lines baggage handler and handyman, is the prosecution's star witness. Ms. Craven's former lover, he agreed to testify against her in a deal to avoid the death penalty. His wife has filed for divorce. Ronald Scott Pryor: Mr. Pryor, 35, was found guilty of murder and was recommended for the death penalty by a jury. The hired hit man from Independence bludgeoned and shot Mr. Craven. Deanna Dennison: Ms. Craven's co-defense attorney made a name for herself by successfully defending Michael Funk. He was ultimately acquitted in 1994 of murdering Jenny SueIles, 7, of Covington after three trials over a nearly five-year span. Patricia Summe: Elected in 1994, she was Kenton County's first female circuit judge and Kentucky's fifth. She is presiding in only her second death penalty case in the Adele Craven case; her first was Mr. Pryor's. Luke Morgan: 11-year veteran as an assistant attorney general and head of the special prosecutions division in Frankfort. Many of his other cases have been in Eastern Kentucky. Stephen Craven: The Minnesota native met his wife while stationed in California with the Coast Guard. He and Mrs. Craven moved to a home on Carimel Ridge in Edgewood in 1992 and Mr. Craven took a job with Delta. Their two sons were 6 and 8 when their father was killed.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

The verdict The jury of ten women and two men has been sequestered as it deliberates whether Adele Craven is guilty of complicity to murder. Guilty verdict: If the jury finds Ms. Craven guilty, the trial will enter the penalty phase. Jurors would be given options: 20 to 50 years, life, life without the possibility of parole for 25 years, life without the possibility of parole, or death. Not guilty verdict: The jury does not have the option to find her guilty of a lesser charge. If found not guilty, Ms. Craven could be eligible to receive the $500,000 insurance policy on her husband's life and to ask the courts for custody of her children, now in emergency custody of Mr. Craven's family. Hung jury: Any verdict must be unanimous. If the jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, the prosecution may withdraw the charges, the judge may throw the charges out or the judge may order the case retried. Sentencing The judge can follow the jury's recommendations or hand down a lesser penalty at a sentencing hearing, usually scheduled within 30 days after a trial. She cannot sentence Ms. Craven to a penalty more severe.

CASE TIMELINE

It has taken nearly 2‡ years for prosecutors to bring Adele Craven to trial in one of Northern Kentucky's most sensational recent homicides. Case highlights: July 12, 2000: Delta pilot Stephen Craven, 38, of Edgewood is found beaten and shot to death in his basement. July 21: Adele Craven, then 37, of Edgewood is arrested on a charge of murder for her husband's death. Prosecutors say Ms. Craven was having an affair and wanted to collect a $500,000 life insurance policy. July 28: Russell "Rusty" McIntire, 32, of Erlanger, Ms. Craven's lover, is charged with murder. July 29: Ronald Scott Pryor, 33, of Independence, the hired triggerman, is charged with murder. August: Detectives spend nine days digging through trash at a Boone County dump looking for the murder weapons, a crowbar and .38-caliber pistol. The weapons were never found. Sept. 15: Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against the defendants. Feb. 13, 2001: Assistant Attorney General Luke Morgan is assigned the case after a judge rules there is a potential conflict of interest in Kenton County. June 8: Mr. McIntire pleads guilty and agrees to cooperate with the prosecution to avoid the death penalty. Sept. 25: The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks prompt Judge Patricia Summe to delay Mr. Pryor's and Mrs. Craven's trials, citing sympathy for pilots. May 6, 2002: Mr. Pryor is found guilty of murder. The jury recommends death. Oct. 28: The Adele Craven trial begins in Lexington, moved there because of pretrial publicity. Dec. 4: Case goes to the jury

Defense attorney Deanna Dennison, famed for getting Covington resident Michael Funk acquitted of murder charges in the 1990s, contends Ms. Craven loved her husband and had nothing to do with the killing.

In the defense's view, Mr. Craven was killed by a hit man hired by the handyman who remodeled the Craven basement. The handyman, Russell "Rusty" McIntire, was off his anti-depressant medication, drinking heavily and obsessed with Ms. Craven, the defense says. The theory is he stalked her, spied on her and seduced her, but when Ms. Craven ultimately rejected him, Mr. McIntire decided to kill Mr. Craven and hired the hit man on his own.

As the Fayette County jury decides which of these widely divergent accounts to believe, the trial - now in its sixth week - is already the longest-running criminal case in Fayette County in recent memory.

The cost of having to conduct the trial 80 miles south of Cincinnati - the trial was moved because of pretrial publicity - is creating a price tag much higher than other capital cases.

Jurors are being asked to sort out two starkly opposite claims - Adele Craven either plotted to kill her husband and participated, or she had nothing to do with it and wasn't even there when it happened.

Two and a half years after Stephen Craven took his final breath, 10 women and two men are about to decide who was ultimately responsible for his death.

A love-triangle plot ...

During closing arguments on Wednesday, Mr. Morgan said Ms. Craven, 39, of Edgewood was a cheating wife who wished her husband's plane would crash so she could collect on a $500,000 life insurance policy.

Mr. Morgan and co-prosecutor Christina Brown, both assistant attorneys general, spent three weeks calling five dozen witnesses and entering 229 exhibits. The courtroom has several black trunks filled with evidence, transcripts and other items used in the trial. The defense alone had 2,000 pages of documentation.

The prosecution called Ms. Craven's beautician, her marriage counselor, her neighbors and her sister to try to establish that she was in a troubled marriage, talked of having her husband killed and acted strange on the day of the killing. But their star witness was Mr. McIntire.

"I talked with her (Adele) about different ways to ambush Stephen," said Mr. McIntire, who rarely looked at Ms. Craven while on the stand. "Options included on a bike trail, on his boat and in the house. She (Adele) even discussed killing him herself. She told me if she ever got the chance, she would shoot Steve."

Mr. Morgan contends Ms. Craven duped her lover, Mr. McIntire, 34, of Erlanger, into hiring a hit man after she failed to recruit anyone for the job herself. Mr. McIntire, a Delta Air Lines baggage handler by night and a handyman by day, had begun an affair with Ms. Craven after he was hired to remodel the Cravens' walkout basement.

Mr. McIntire, the prosecution says, hired Ronald Scott Pryor, 35, of Independence to be the triggerman. He hid behind a sofa in the basement as Ms. Craven lured her husband down the stairs by yelling, "Honey, the ferret is loose!" The Craven family kept the pet caged in the attached garage.

Ms. Craven and Mr. McIntire locked the doors to the basement so Mr. Craven wouldn't be able to escape the crowbar-swinging Mr. Pryor, the prosecution says. To ensure the neighbors on their quiet cul-de-sac wouldn't hear a yell for help, Mr. McIntire then turned up the stereo in his truck parked outside.

In April, a Kenton County jury recommended that Mr. Pryor, described at trial by his defense attorneys as a "slow thinker," be sentenced to death. Kenton Judge Patricia Summe must decide whether to follow the jury's request or sentence Mr. Pryor to a lesser punishment during a sentencing hearing.

Mr. McIntire turned against Ms. Craven - a woman he had called his "soul mate" - testifying against her in exchange for a plea deal of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

Or, jealous lover acting alone

Co-defense attorneys Deanna Dennison of Covington and Linda A. Smith of Florence contend Ms. Craven ended the affair with Mr. McIntire before the murder, but the two remained friends. The Cravens were trying to get their relationship back on track by seeing a marriage counselor.

That set off Mr. McIntire, who had emotional problems, she said. In one angry outburst, he had even choked a fellow Delta employee, Ms. Dennison said.

"He was losing her and he knew it," Ms. Dennison said.

Mr. McIntire had access to the house and could have broken into the family's gun closet and taken Mr. Craven's pistol, she said.

The night before the murder, Ms. Dennison said, Mr. McIntire bought two crowbars at Home Depot. She suggested that Mr. McIntire and Mr. Pryor ganged up on Stephen Craven together while Ms. Craven was out of the house getting her youngest son from a neighbor.

She had no idea that her husband was being bludgeoned, Ms. Dennison said, and never would have arranged such a brutal murder when her children could have walked in on the scene.

Mr. Craven was struck 12 times in the head with a crowbar and shot three times in the head, the county coroner testified.

In her own defense

The defense's star witness was Ms. Craven herself. She testified for about 14 hours over two days, often speaking is such a low voice that jurors complained they could not hear her.

"Rusty implicated me to save his own skin," Ms. Craven said before breaking down in tears. "He is betraying me."

Ms. Craven testified that though Mr. Craven was a very "structured" person who complained about her weight (125 pounds) and spending habits, she loved him and would never kill him.

Ms. Dennison, using a similar tactic to that which helped destroy the murder case against convicted child molester Michael Funk, questioned the timeline of the murder.

Ms. Dennison called a 14-year-old neighbor girl to the stand who testified she saw Mr. Craven standing in the doorway of his home at 10:50 a.m. on the day of the killing.

That would put Mr. Craven's death about an hour later than what the prosecution claims, opening the door to the defense claim that Ms. Craven was running errands at the time.

Despite being held in Lexington, the trial has been attended by former jurors from Mr. Pryor's trial, attorneys from throughout the state and even police cadets. Mr. Craven's parents, both retired, have been in the courtroom almost every day. Members of Ms. Craven's family, many of whom live in California, have rarely been present.

The Cravens' two sons, Joseph, 8, and Daniel, 11, now live with a paternal uncle and have not been in attendance. Family members say the children have not been told of the full circumstances surrounding their father's death.

The state took so much interest in the Craven case that it is being prosecuted directly out of Attorney General Ben Chandler's office.

The state is also taking a gamble in asking for the death penalty. Only three women have ever been sent to Kentucky's death row, and the death sentence was overruled in two of those cases.

Although it might be months for the final figure to be tallied, the Craven case is costing thousands of dollars more than the typical murder prosecution.

The trial was moved from Covington to Lexington, forcing the state to fly or drive in nearly every witness called by both the prosecution and defense.

Witnesses have been flown in from California and Kansas. The state is paying for Ms. Craven's defense after she was declared indigent. Kenton County workers are racking up overtime for testimony about the investigation.

The judge, two bailiffs and a court clerk are all staying overnight in Lexington - at the tony Gratz Park Inn - as the trial moves along slowly and meticulously.

The jury was sequestered Wednesday night and will begin deliberations at 9 a.m. today. Closing arguments Wednesday lasted from 9:30 a.m. until shortly after 8 p.m., with a one-hour break for lunch.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com