Adele Craven

Case record: Adele Craven

Background

Adele Craven married Stephen Craven, an airline pilot, in 1989 after meeting while Stephen was training to become a pilot in the U.S. Coast Guard and Adele attended mortician school. They were described as having two young sons. Eventually, Stephen became a Pilot with Delta Airlines and they moved to Edgewood, Kentucky with their two young sons.

By the spring of 2000, Stephen and Adele were fighting often and sought marriage counseling, as they had done in years past. Stephen cited her overspending. Adele said he wanted to have sex too often. Adele told her friends that Stephen made her skin crawl and that she wished his plane would crash.

Adele got $3,000 from her mother for a divorce, but decided that it was not an option and hid the money from Stephen.

The offence

On July 12, 2000, Stephen Craven was killed in the basement of their home in Edgewood, Kentucky. His body was found at the bottom of the basement stairs. Prosecutors said Adele orchestrated Stephen’s killing to collect insurance money. Prosecutors also said Adele had a lover, Russell “Rusty” McIntire, and that the killing was carried out through McIntire and a hired hit man.

Plan and preparation

Adele befriended Rusty McIntire, described as the son of their contractor, while home repair was being done. The two commiserated, and Adele quickly began an affair with him. Prosecutors said Adele recognized how easily she could manipulate McIntire and convinced him to help her kill her husband.

Prosecutors said Adele convinced McIntire that they would share Stephen’s life insurance money and begin a new life together. Unable to muster the courage to kill Stephen himself, McIntire turned to a construction site laborer named Ron Pryor, who was described as perpetually in need of money and not afraid to do anything to get some. Pryor was offered $15,000 and agreed.

A plan was made for the evening of July 12, 2000. Pryor was to beat Stephen with a crowbar and to ransack the home to make it look like a burglary. McIntire purchased the murder weapon the night before the murder and called Adele on a cell phone that he had given her. The cell phone had become a point of contention between the Cravens. Stephen wanted Adele to give it back, but she refused. Adele claimed she was working with McIntire and told Stephen that the phone was necessary. Adele and Rusty talked on the cell phone often. Cell phone records were described as showing that McIntire and Adele talked 502 times for a total of 1875 minutes in the month before the murder, and that on the day of the murder alone they called each other 22 times.

Events on July 12, 2000

McIntire and Pryor met at 9 A.M. and waited in a local cemetery for Adele’s phone call. They planned to go to the Craven home that morning to see the layout and further discuss the plan for the murder that night.

At the Craven home, Stephen and Adele were planning for an upcoming vacation. Stephen had called in sick and Adele was waiting for him to leave the house. Stephen called a friend in New York and arranged to meet in New York City to see a Broadway Show. Adele approved the arrangement and called McIntire, telling him they had to do it now.

With their oldest son away at a day camp, Adele let her other son go with a neighbor to the grocery store, providing the opportunity to get Stephen alone.

Pryor hid in the back of McIntire’s truck and they drove to the Craven home. It was described as not unusual for McIntire to show up uninvited because he was still working on odd jobs there. When McIntire arrived, he told Stephen he was there to fix a faulty showerhead in the basement. Pryor hid in the basement at a prearranged spot where Adele set up a mirror so that Pryor could see when Stephen was in position to be attacked.

Adele lured Stephen toward the garage by telling him their pet ferret was loose, described as the signal for Pryor to attack. As Stephen approached Adele, she shut the half glass door in his face while Pryor attacked.

Stephen was struck a dozen times with the crowbar, and later described as being shot three times in the head. Adele stood at the window watching the attack.

After the beating, Adele and the others gathered by McIntire’s truck. Adele declared that Stephen was still breathing. Stephen’s arm twitched in the pool of his own blood. Adele produced a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson and handed it to Pryor, telling him to go in and shoot Stephen. Prosecutors said Pryor complied, shooting Stephen one time in the head.

Adele then told Pryor to shoot again, reloaded the gun, handed it to Pryor, and instructed him to shoot Stephen a second time. Prosecutors said Pryor shot Stephen two more times in the head, leaving bloody boot prints near the body.

Aftermath of the killing

After the deed was done, the three went their separate ways. Adele told Rusty that the longer it was before a body was found, the harder it was to establish a time of death, describing this as information she learned while becoming a mortician.

Adele went to a bank and got a $4,000 cash advance from Stephen’s credit card. She then met McIntire at a Verizon Wireless store and paid $1,308.36 on his delinquent cell phone bill. Adele gave McIntire $1,000 to pay Pryor, and the two had lunch. McIntire then met Pryor and gave him the $1,000 cash for the murder.

Ten hours after the murder, Adele came home and called 911 from a neighbor’s phone because “the front door is standing open and there is a light on in the office and my husband is supposed to be in New York”. When police arrived, they found the body. Adele never shed a tear but tried to appear distraught.

During sentencing proceedings, prosecutors described the events in the form of a read statement of facts:

“Ronald Pryor hit Mr. Craven several times with a crowbar and shot him three times in the head” “at the direction of the co-defendants, Adele Craven and Rusty McIntire.” “Pryor and McIntire left the home. The crowbar and handgun were also placed inside a garbage bag that McIntire took from the residence. Adele Craven was still there when McIntire and Pryor left.”

Investigation

Detective Wayne Wallace was asked by the City of Edgewood to lead the investigation.

An Edgewood Patrolman told Wallace that he had caught Rusty McIntire and Adele Craven having sex in the back of McIntire’s truck behind a local church. When Wallace spoke with Adele that night, she made no mention of her relationship with McIntire.

Adele’s car was searched and it was discovered that she had her passport, a file folder that included birth certificates of her and the children, a bag containing makeup, underwear, marriage counseling notes, a phone charger, and clothes for her and the boys.

Evidence was described as continuing to mount against Adele Craven, including that she told at least 8 people that she wanted Stephen dead and asked one to find her a hit man. She told her babysitter that if anything ever happened to Stephen not to ask her about it because she did not want to have to lie to her.

McIntire fled and later returned from his vacation. When confronted by Wallace, McIntire confessed and revealed the murder-for-hire plan. Ron Pryor was immediately arrested and also confessed. Their confessions led to retrieval of evidence involved in the murder.

McIntire discarded bloody clothes and murder weapons at a local refuse transfer station. The evidence was then taken to a garbage landfill in Williamstown, Kentucky. Six weeks after the murder, Wallace and others searched at the landfill through three thousand tons of garbage for sixteen days and found the bloody boots and shirt that Pryor wore during the murder. DNA testing confirmed that they were covered with Stephen Craven’s blood.

McIntire had discarded the bullets in a wooded area and led Wallace to them. The FBI laboratory conducted Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis and matched the rounds found in the woods with the rounds found in Stephen’s head. The murder weapons were never found.

Arrest

Adele Craven was arrested 8 days after the murder. She maintained innocence.

McIntire refused to speak with Wallace and fled the country on a prearranged Disney Cruise, described as compliments of Adele Craven and her mother’s $3,000.

Ron Pryor was immediately arrested after McIntire’s confession and confessed.

Trial

First trial and mistrial

The Commonwealth seeking the death penalty against all three defendants prompted a judge to sever their cases, forcing separate trials.

A deal was made with McIntire to testify against his co-defendants in exchange for a sentence of life without parole for twenty-five years. Pryor was tried in April 2002 in Kenton County Circuit Court, and a jury sentenced him to death.

Adele Craven hired an aggressive attorney who successfully sought a change of venue to Lexington, Kentucky. The time leading up to the trial and the trial itself were described as full of defense antics for seven weeks, resulting in a hung jury. A mistrial was declared in December 2002.

The jury deadlocked in Adele’s first trial, and it was described that eight of the jurors wanted to acquit her.

Second trial and guilty plea

Prosecutors struck a deal with Ron Pryor to escape the death penalty and testify in Adele Craven’s retrial in exchange for a sentence of life without parole.

In January 2004, Adele Craven was again tried for murder in Lexington, Kentucky. On February 19, 2004, after six weeks of trial and at the conclusion of the Commonwealth’s case, Adele requested to plead guilty to murder to avoid a possible sentence of death and agreed to a sentence of life in prison. She waived any future appeal and was sentenced immediately.

During discussions about what happened in court, Adele admitted in the courtroom:

“I was stunned at today’s developments because she has denied it from the beginning,” said Bill Craven.

Prosecutors’ account described that she orchestrated the killing and stood by and watched while her husband was beaten and shot three times.

At sentencing, Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe sentenced Craven immediately to life in prison.

At the guilty plea hearing, it was described that Craven entered the courtroom wearing a calf-length black skirt and a black and white sweater, with attorneys, and that she wept openly during the proceeding.

A statement was also reported from Garnet Craven:

“She was crying for herself,” said Garnet Craven, who came from Palm Springs, Calif., to attend, and was there nearly every day of both trials. “She killed him many times. She planned it. She called him down the stairs. She handed the gun to (Pryor) two different times. “She made many, many conscious efforts to kill him.”

During the hearing, Morgan read the statement of facts outlining the killing, and Summe then sentenced Craven.

Sentencing

Adele Craven was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty on February 19, 2004. The case entry also reported that she was eligible for parole in 20 years.

Kenton County Circuit Judge Patricia Summe sentenced Craven to life in prison. It was also stated that she would receive credit for time served and likely meet the Parole Board for the first time in late 2020.

The status line provided the date of sentencing as April 27, 2004.

Appeals

Adele Craven waived any future appeal.

Outcome

Adele Craven pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill her husband and was sentenced to life in prison. She also pleaded guilty to murder in Lexington, Kentucky, and received a life sentence.

Aftermath

Craven was in jail from a few weeks after the murder. She was returned to the Kenton County Jail after the hearing and described as likely being moved to the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women in Pewee Valley to serve her sentence.

Family described included:

• Stephen Craven’s brother, Bill Craven, who rushed from Atlanta and attended the plea hearing.
• Stephen Craven’s mother, Garnet Craven, who attended and was described as nearly every day of both trials.
• Craven’s sons, Daniel and Joseph, who lived with a paternal uncle and were described as not having been in attendance. One report described them as Joseph, 8, and Daniel, 11, and another described them as Daniel, 12, and Joseph, 10.

It was described that Bill Craven filed a wrongful death suit against Craven in Kenton County circuit court. It was unclear whether the family would pursue that lawsuit.

Other details

People named in the case

• Stephen Craven — victim; described as a veteran Delta Air Lines pilot.
• Adele Craven — defendant.
• Russell “Rusty” McIntire — lover; contractor’s son; later testified for the prosecution after a plea deal.
• Ron Pryor — construction site laborer; hired hit man.
• Detective Wayne Wallace — lead investigator.
• Luke Morgan — assistant attorney general and prosecutor.
• Christina Brown — assistant attorney general and co-prosecutor.
• Patricia Summe — Kenton County Circuit Judge.
• Kenneth McCardwell — co-defense attorney.
• Deanna Dennison — co-defense attorney.
• Linda A. Smith — co-defense attorney.
• Deanna Dennison was described as “famed for getting Covington resident Michael Funk acquitted of murder charges in the 1990s.”
• Ben Chandler — Attorney General, described as having the case prosecuted directly out of his office.
• Sue Craven — called Bill Craven to tell him to get to the courtroom.

Charges and legal framing (as described)

• Prosecutors charged Adele and Rusty with conspiring to kill Stephen Craven.
• The case later involved a complicity to murder charge and a death penalty request for all three defendants in the broader legal posture described.
• Adele ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill her husband and also pleaded guilty to murder to avoid possible death.

Disputes in the case

Defense attorneys contended Adele loved Stephen and had nothing to do with the killing. Defense attorneys contended the killing was done by a hit man hired by the handyman who remodeled the basement, and they described an alternative explanation involving McIntire’s alleged actions and motives.

The prosecution’s position stated that Adele heard Stephen gasp, shoved a pistol into a hit man’s hand, and ordered him to finish the job, reloaded the .38 caliber revolver, and ordered her husband to be shot twice more.

Key outcome statements

• Morgan was quoted saying:

• Morgan was also quoted:

• Assistant Attorney General Luke Morgan was quoted:

• Bill Craven was quoted:

• Bill Craven was quoted on the death penalty:

“I wasn’t happy with the deal when Luke (Morgan) first explained it,” Bill Craven said. “But the more I considered it, the better I liked it. ” “The best part of the deal is that she is admitting guilt, and signing a statement of guilt. I don’t think she’ll ever be let out of prison.”

“She deserved more, but this guilty plea prevents her from filing appeals,” said Assistant Attorney General Luke Morgan, who prosecuted the case.

“The most important thing is she admitted what she did,” said Morgan. “She won’t be able to file appeals for years to come and harass the victim’s family. This guilty plea will help relieve the pain that family has felt.”

“We finally have closure today,” said Morgan. “Adele Craven hurt so many people.”

“I would have said we don’t want the death penalty,” Bill Craven said. “Steve would not have wanted it. For Steve’s legacy, and for Dan and Joe, we would not have wanted it.”