Nevada City man exonerated after cold case solved
In the time since Michael
Stone’s wife was murdered on Oct. 15, 1981, he has faced many obstacles to healing.
Aside from dealing with trauma, Stone has had to endure rumors that he murdered his wife — Sonia Carmen Herok Stone — even though he was cleared of charges by officials.
Now, through the advances of DNA technology, Stone can finally begin the healing process as Michael Scott Glazebrook,
67, a former Salinas school bus driver in Monterey County, was convicted in the rape and murder of Herok Stone earlier this month.
Glazebrook was the initial
suspect in the first-degree murder case, which went to trial in 1983 and resulted in a hung jury. As a result, he was released from custody.
Forty years later, utilizing funds from a Monterey County Sheriff ’s grant, Deputy District Attorney Matthew L’heureux reopened the case in 2020, re-examining all evidence.
Detectives determined that some of the evidence could be tested with DNA technology that hadn’t been developed when Glazebrook first went on trial.
“In 1983, at the time of the original trial, there was no DNA testing, so what they were able to do with the evidence from the crime scene was just check it for blood type and those kinds of genetic markers,” L’heureux told KSBW news station.
“The case was reopened, evidence was resubmitted to the Department of Justice Crime Lab and they were able to extract DNA from under the victim’s fingernails and from her sexual assault kit that was taken at the time of her autopsy, and it was a match to Mr. Glazebrook.”
Glazebrook was then arrested again in August 2021 and was booked into Monterey County Jail on a warrant for murder. His bail was set at $1 million, according to officials.
The trial lasted eight days, and the jury deliberated for six hours before reaching a unanimous guilty verdict. The sentencing of Glazebrook is scheduled for April 26 and he faces life without parole.
When the Monterey County Sheriff ’s Office went to Herok Stone’s Carmel-by-the-sea home on Oct. 15, 1981, they discovered she had been raped and strangled to death, according to reports.
Law enforcement officials called her husband, Michael Stone, who had been living and working in Marin County, and told him there had been an accident, according to Stone.
He drove to Carmel immediately, he said.
“I got there and learned I was one of the suspects,” Stone said, adding that he was told that his wife’s father was looking for him and had a gun. “The worst thing was that
Sonia’s mother wanted my daughter … who was only four at the time, to go and live with her. She told the police that she thought I was a child molester.”
After discovering the body of Herok Stone,
Carol Mcbride, a close friend of Herok Stone’s, told police officers that, “Michael Stone was unfit to care for his daughter, and that Sonia and Michael had been separated,” a Monterey County Sheriff ’s Department police report stated.
The family physician, Dr. Milton Estes, examined and interviewed Stone’s daughter in May of 1980 when her mother had shared her suspicions with Estes, and determined there was no indication of child molestation or other wrongful conduct by Stone, the police report states.
Nevertheless, Stone’s daughter spent eight days under the care of Child Protective Services due to the accusations reported by several individuals listed in the police report.
“Those were the eight worst days of my life,”
Stone said.
Stone’s daughter was then turned over to the care of her father. Some time later, she went to live with a relative in British Columbia, Canada.
Trauma resurfaces
Years later, Stone met and began dating Reinette Senum — a former Nevada City councilmember.
During that time, another woman who had a relationship with
Stone contacted Senum and informed her of the troubles she had while married to him.
“(She) got a hold of Reinette, and told Reinette that I had killed my wife, that I was a child mostester, and that I had beaten her up. And all these things about me which most people wouldn’t believe, but Reinette and I were in a brand new relationship, so Reinette just cut off from me,” Stone said.
Stone said that Senum interfered with his attempts to acquire housing in Nevada City, and that she went to the owners of a house and told them not to do business with him.
“They backed out of the deal. They were so scared by the time she got done with them, they were standing on the loft, they wouldn’t even come down to talk to me,” Stone said.
The homeowner of the house Stone references — Richard Mccutchan — remembers the events differently.
“Although I had some concerns about Michael because of information he shared with me himself, the reason I went with another buyer was because his escrow had run out of time, so I switched to another buyer who was interested and who had the money. I never did talk to Reinette,” Mccutchan said.
Stone later moved to British Columbia, where his daughter was living.
After hearing that the cold case had been solved and there was a trial that would bring the truth to light, Stone decided to come home to Nevada County in July 2022.
“When (the cold case) opened up again, I came to Nevada County because I felt the new DNA analysis would finally bring justice. Law enforcement in Monterey County took these old cases that they thought they could solve, and they had blood from underneath Sonia’s fingernail … and this is kind of gross … they had the saliva from her nipples of the man who raped her,” Stone said.
With the new trial, though, came more unsettling news for
Stone, as Glazebrook’s defense attorneys began calling acquaintances of Stone saying they were investigating “a criminal case involving Michael Stone,” according to Stone.
Stone said that he was still known around the county as “the guy who killed his wife,” and the trauma began to resurface.
Glazebrook’s attorneys also subpoenaed Senum to testify during the trial, given Senum had previously been in contact with officials regarding information about Stone.
However, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Pamela L. Butler did not allow her testimony.
Senum said she was “baffled” as to why the judge would not want to know information about Stone, but she was also relieved to distance herself from the events.
“It is true that those two individuals attempted to introduce evidence into the recent trial of the cold case. The judge did not accept the evidence from (Senum) because it was not enough to raise reasonable doubt against the defendant, Glazebrook,” L’heureux said. “It is true that the presiding Judge Honorable Pamela L. Butler did dismiss the evidence, but I can not go into detail about that evidence.”
L’heureux went on to say that “Michael Stone absolutely did not murder his wife.”
“DNA showed that one in a million millions that it was (Glazebrook). And the saliva test came back one out of 265 quadrillions, that’s 19 zeros,” Stone said.
“The judge’s decision to not hear testimony from women in Nevada County
has been a mystery. And we are all waiting for the appeal,” Senum said.
“It is important for me to get this story out. I’ve been an active member of the community. I worked with many of the local organizations. I had a show at KVMR radio in Nevada City where I interviewed thought leaders for 17 years,” Stone said. “I just want the truth told. I love this community.”
Stone said he was pleased that the truth had finally come out, but it was a very emotional time for him after so many years and said he is relieved that a guilty verdict was finally reached.
Now, Stone works with other people who cope with trauma in their own lives and offers open Trauma Awareness, Integration, and Meditation classes on Tuesday nights at the Inner Path Yoga and Meditation
center at 200 Commercial St.
“Separation is the main symptom of trauma. We all have trauma,” Stone said. “We are swimming in a sea of individual, familial, collective, and ancestral trauma. We wonder why we can’t solve the problems of the world, let alone in our relationships. We can’t authentically and transparently connect because we feel separate And that’s a function of trauma.”