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Subject: Young Stuart Pleads Guilty To Fraud; Alleged Wife Killer's Brother Gets 3 to
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 92 04:45:22 EST
Message-ID: <29.1992Nov3.044522@AmeriCast.com>

Young Stuart Pleads Guilty To Fraud; Alleged Wife Killer's Broth-
er Gets 3 to 5<By Christopher B. Daly<Special to The Washington
Post=

BOSTON, Nov. 2 - The macabre case of the Stuart slaying, hoax and
apparent suicide took another abrupt twist today when Matthew
Stuart pleaded guilty to helping his brother, Charles, commit in-
surance fraud even as he continued to deny involvement in murder.

By pleading guilty just before the start of jury selection,
Matthew Stuart deprived the public of a trial that had promised
not only courtroom drama but also perhaps the best chance to
learn more of the facts behind the sensational and mysterious
slaying that grabbed national attention in the fall of 1989.

Matthew Stuart, 26, pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to
six charges of insurance fraud conspiracy, concealing stolen
goods, unlawfully carrying a firearm and "compounding a felony."
In a plea agreement, he was sentenced to three to five years.
Stuart would be eligible for parole in a year.

"Today, I am taking responsibility for my actions," Stuart told
Judge Robert Banks today. "I never knew of my brother's plan to
murder his wife . .  the pain of this horrible tragedy."

Matthew was the younger brother who provided police with their
first substantial clues and began the series of revelations that
led authorities to conclude that Charles Stuart killed his preg-
nant wife, Carol, by shooting her point-blank in their car Oct.
23, 1989.  As his wife was dying, police said, Stuart apparently
shot himself, then used a car phone to summon help, telling pol-
ice that a black man in jogging clothes had attacked them.
Charles, meanwhile, handed his wife's handbag and the weapon to
Matthew, who later said he never knew of Charles's plan to harm
Carol.

Carol Stuart died that night after giving birth prematurely to a
son, Christopher, who died 17 days later.

While Charles recuperated from his self-inflicted wound, Boston
police, spurred to action by Mayor Raymond L.  Flynn (D), ran
roughshod through minority neighborhoods around the shooting
scene. Charles identified William Bennett, a black man, as his
assailant in a lineup.

Days later, on Jan. 3, 1990, Matthew approached the district
attorney's office. Believing that he had been granted immunity
from prosecution, he told prosecutors that no black mugger exist-
ed because Charles had staged the robbery. The next morning,
Charles Stuart's body was found in Boston Harbor, and police said
he apparently had jumped from a bridge after learning that
Matthew had talked.

The horror of the crime ignited a frenzy of news coverage, fol-
lowed by books and a television movie. At the same time, Stuart's
apparent suicide left many people here with a yearning for a con-
clusive explanation of the slaying and punishment for the killer.

Such yearnings will remain unsatisfied, defense lawyer Nancy
Gertner said today, because "those answers went to the grave with
Charles Stuart."

Gertner took pains to make clear that Matthew Stuart pleaded
guilty to what he thought was to be an insurance scam. She said
her overriding concern was to fight the pressure to try Matthew
"for the sins of his brother."

Gertner said Matthew accepted the plea agreement when it became
clear that the new district attorney, Ralph Martin, was willing
to treat him like any other cooperative, nonviolent first of-
fender.

A resident of suburban Revere, Matthew is to remain free under a
stay of his sentence until Nov. 23 to allow time for a planned
knee operation.

Gertner said the case had devastated the Stuart family, noting
that Matthew's parents have been ill after suffering the violent
deaths of a son, daughter-in-law and grandson.

"It's hard to imagine how one human being could have ruined so
many lives," Gertner said in an interview, referring to Charles,
whom she described as an achiever who duped his younger brother.
Even so, she said, Matthew should not be considered a victim.

"The victim was Carol Stuart," she said.

In the aftermath of the case, Boston has experienced cascading
repercussions, including a sharp increase in racial tension after
it became clear how readily police, the news media and the public
had accepted Charles Stuart's hoax.

Carol Stuart's parents, Giusto and Evelyn DiMaiti, started a fund
to provide college scholarships in their daughter's name. Last
year, the couple privately settled a wrongful death suit against
the Stuart family to block the Stuarts from inheriting any of
Charles's and Carol's estate.

In addition, the DiMaitis have filed a wrongful-death suit
against Kakas Furs, the company where Charles Stuart was earning
$100,000 a year as a salesman. The suit maintains that Kakas
failed to safeguard the handgun that Charles Stuart used to kill
his wife.

Another legal issue remains unsettled. A friend of Matthew
Stuart, Jack McMahon, faces a charge of being an accessory after
the fact of murder for allegedly helping Matthew to dispose of
the gun.<02:25 11-03C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)