Self-defense claimed in case of body found in apartment

By Matt Pordum

Monday, July 25, 2005 | 9:18 a.m.

The defense pursued its self-defense case this morning in the trial of Greg Stiegler, accused of killing his roommate and burying the body in concrete under the stairs of their apartment.

Stiegler, in describing the fatal confrontation to an FBI agent after his arrest, said Robert Wilson came out him with a gun, but then Stiegler, armed with a metal rod from the closet, "blacked out," and when he came to, he was "standing over Wilson in the hallway with blood everywhere and Wilson lying on his back with the gun laying next to him and the metal rod bent in half."

One of the final prosecution witnesses, Special Agent Mark Roble testified Friday about an interview he had with Stiegler shortly after Roble and about 30 officers arrested Stiegler in Flagstaff, Ariz. The agent said Stiegler told him "his side of the story" in the interview that was not taped.

After the killing Stiegler continued living in the home in the Orleans Square Apartments in the 500 block of South Maryland Parkway, but he asked his girlfriend to move because he "wanted to try and live life normally," Roble said in testimony.

Roble said that was the rationale Stiegler offered him about the killing.e apartment.

Roble said Stiegler told him the incident occurred on a Friday night in February 2002 when Stiegler was at the apartment by himself. He said Wilson was "intoxicated" and demanded rent money up front from Stiegler.

Although Stiegler paid $10 per day, he said Wilson asked for $20, which Stiegeler gave him despite knowing his roommate was going to use the money to "buy drugs and alcohol."

Roble said Stiegler told him a little later in the evening that Wilson came back to the apartment and again demanded Stiegler give him $20, which Stiegler said he handed over to Wilson.

He told Roble that Wilson returned a third time demanding once again that Stiegler give him $20. But this time Stiegler said he was broke, which led to an argument.

After retreating to his room to sit on the bed, Stiegler told Roble, Wilson came up to him and "poked him in the chest and then poked him the nose."

Stiegler told Roble that after pushing Wilson away, a fight ensued. He told the agent Wilson was "not a very good fighter" and he punched Wilson in the face several times and knocked him to the floor three times.

When Wilson got up from the third knockdown, Stiegler said, Wilson ran out of the room and returned with a gun, according to Roble.

Stiegler told Roble his first reaction was to grab a closet rod and try to knock the gun out of Wilson's hand, but he was unsuccessful.

After coming to from the alleged blackout, Stiegler told Roble that he "didn't think he (Wilson) was dead, and didn't know what to do, so he left the apartment for a period of hours."

Stiegler said he came back to the apartment thinking the police would be waiting him, but when he returned to the apartment nothing had changed, according to Roble.

After determining Wilson was "cold to the touch" and now dead, Roble said, Stiegler explained why he buried the body and never contacted the police.

"No one was going to believe this was an accident, so the only thing I could do was hide the body," Roble said Stiegler told him.

Stiegler told Roble he broke his hand punching Wilson during the fight and it "would have been hard to argue self-defense because he didn't have any major injures and Mr. Wilson's were so terrible."

Stiegler's then girlfriend, Teresa Cheney, the mother of one of his children, said Stiegler told her the broken hand was the result of a fight he had with an old roommate of Wilson.

Cheney, who smiled at Stiegler and laughed at unusual moments during her testimony, said when she moved in with Stiegler he told her "Bob (Wilson) moved out."

She said when she moved into the apartment there were boxes and a child-sized couch covering the area underneath the staircase. When she told Stiegler it smelled like " a bad sewer pipe or my son had a dirty diaper" he explained the smell was from a broken pipe.

Cheney said she found the story "sounded very reasonable."

While watching an episode of "CSI' dealing with a similar case, Cheney said Stiegler asked her what she would do if her brother or sister accidentally killed someone. She told him she wouldn't walk away from them, but instead offer support.

The day before local television news reported Wilson's body had been found under the floor of the apartment, Cheney said Stiegler kissed and hugged her and said "he was going to go talk to a man about a job."

Cheney said she hadn't seen him again before testifying on Friday.