Sentencing set for man convicted in slayings of wife, son

A judge has scheduled a sentencing hearing for March 28 for an Alabama man convicted of killing his wife and son.

Madison County Circuit Judge Donna Pate can sentence 39-year-old Stephen Marc Stone to either death by lethal injection or life without parole.

Jurors who convicted Stone of capital murder last week in the 2013 killings of his 32-yearold wife Krista and their 7-year-old son Zachary recommended the life term.

Lawmakers have barred judges from overriding the recommendations of jurors in capital cases. But that restriction doesn’t apply in Stone’s case because the slayings happened before the law changed in 2017.

Prosecutors accused the man of strangling the two in their home nearly six years ago. The defense argued Stone was insane at the time of the slayings.