CARTHAGE, Mo. — Local residents have received some backing — and are looking for more — in their effort to keep behind bars a man convicted of killing their relatives in two separate robberies 37 years ago.

A parole hearing is set for Aug. 23 for John Steven Martin, formerly of Carthage.

Then 19, Martin was assessed a second life sentence in April 1976 after he was convicted in the death of Leroy Spencer, 24, during a robbery of a Rolla service station. In March 1975, a life sentence was imposed in Jasper County after Martin was convicted of kidnapping and killing Carthage liquor store owner James Stemmons after robbing his business.

At the time, Martin’s sentence was the most stringent available, but the two life sentences left open the possibility of parole.

“We thought life meant life,” said Deborah Stemmons Smith, of Kansas City, who is James Stemmons’ oldest daughter.

“Really, it means life for us,” she said. “Every time there is a parole hearing, it forces us to relive what happened and we’ll have to relive it for the rest of our lives.”

Had the crimes occurred today, parole would not have been possible, said Dean Dankelson, Jasper County prosecuting attorney. He said his office has written a letter to the state board, opposing parole for Martin.

“This is two separate murders that arose out of two separate robberies, with life in both sentences,” the prosecutor said. “Based on the nature of the crime, we oppose parole in his case, and we have sent a letter to the parole board stating that.”

Dankelson wrote the letter at the request of Patricia Brigman, who lives in Carl Junction and whose brother was Leroy Spencer, killed in the service station robbery. Similar requests are being made to officials in the Rolla area.

“Patricia has done a lot of work and I’m so grateful, because this is so hard,” Smith said.

The Stemmons family has created an online petition and will submit the document to the parole board. They hope to gather 1,500 signatures; there were 731 signatures as of Friday.

Deborah Stemmons Smith said she will attend the hearing at the Moberly Corrections Center to speak against Martin’s potential release.

“I’ve gone every time,” she said. “I usually get way too emotional, and one of my kids has to take over and finish my speech.”

Patricia Brigman said she also will speak and will deliver letters of opposition to the parole that she has collected.

“I’ve already sent one letter,” she said. “One of the criteria the parole board looks at is public opinion, so people who sign the petition or write a letter can make a difference,” she said.

Brigman said she hopes those who write letters will urge the board to push back the next time that Martin can be considered for parole. Hearings can be held every three to five years. The last hearing was three years ago. The more often they occur, the more difficult it is for the families, she said.

Smith said it is becoming more difficult to gather support for the families’ cause because the murders happened so long ago.

“Friends of my dad used to get involved, but a lot of them aren’t around any more or they’re up in years and can’t do as much,” he said. “And people tend to forget what a scary person (Martin) was.’’

The petition signatures must be gathered by Aug. 17, Brigman said, adding, “We really feel like one more letter or one more signature can make a difference.”

Brigman said her brother was a customer at the service station in Rolla when it was robbed on Oct. 16, 1974. He and a station attendant were shot. The attendant was shot three times and survived.

“The only reason he survived was because he played dead,” she said. “My brother suffered in the hospital for 21 days before he died, and (Martin has) made our family suffer a lot longer.”

Brigman lived in Rolla at the time, and moved to the Joplin area with her husband several years ago. Smith moved from Carthage several years after her father’s murder and now lives in Kansas City. Other sisters live in Texas and California, and will not be able to attend the hearing.

Martin was convicted of killing Stemmons in a liquor store robbery on Nov. 21, 1974. After taking $500, robbers forced Stemmons into his pickup truck and drove to a wooded area southeast of Carthage, where Stemmons was shot once in the back and three times in the head.

Two others who were convicted in connection with the Carthage crime served three sentences and were released. David Lynn Pugh, who was 20 at the time, was convicted of robbery and kidnapping, but was acquitted of murder. Leslie Allen Sanders, who was 22, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. He then pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

At a court hearing in Carthage, Martin said Pugh had nothing to do with the crime and that he forced Sanders to help him. Later, he contended that one of the other men shot Stemmons, and that he fired a shot to keep Stemmons from suffering.



Want to help?

The online petition can be found under the heading “Justice for James Stemmons.” Letters can be mailed to the state victim services coordinator who works with the parole board. Letters should be addressed to Carol Meyer, Division of Probation and Parole, 1511 Christy Drive, Jefferson City, MO 65101; or via email at carol.meyer.doc.mo.gov.