Burying of body led jurors to conviction

By Matt Pordum

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.

Jurors said they might have bought a man's claim that he was acting in self-defense when he killed his roommate if it wasn't for the fact he then buried the body in concrete under the stairs of their apartment.

Unable to look past Gregory Stiegler's actions after he killed Robert Wilson, the jury Tuesday convicted Stiegler of second-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon.

District Judge John McGroarty is scheduled to sentence Stiegler on Sept. 7. The judge will have the option of sentencing Stiegler to 20 to 50 years in prison or 20 years to life.

Although Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo believed the evidence against Stiegler warranted a first-degree murder conviction, he wasn't entirely disappointed with the outcome.

"Ultimately it was probably a compromise, but he will have to do at least 20 years before being eligible for parole, and with that said, we're satisfied," DiGiacomo said.

But Stiegler's attorney, Jennifer Bolton, wasn't satisfied.

"We are thrilled it wasn't first-degree murder, but we've believed all along that it was never a first-degree murder case," Bolton said. "Second-degree murder was the offer placed out there by the prosecution from the beginning, so really this is a wash. We got the same outcome we could have gotten a week and a half ago."

Co-counsel Frank Kocka said after talking to several jurors after the verdict it became clear that "the thing we had to overcome was the disposal of the body."

He said the jurors said Stiegler's self-defense claim would have been strongly considered if it weren't for "everything that was done after the fact, from the taping of the mouth to the bag on the head, to the burying of the body under the floor."

Jurors were told of Stiegler's self-defense via the trial testimony of an FBI agent that interviewed Stiegler after his arrest in Arizona.

During the interview Stielger said on a Friday night in February 2002 Wilson was intoxicated and came to Stiegler asking for $20 on three separate occasions. He said he gave Wilson the money the first two times, but had no cash to give Wilson the third time.

He said an argument ensued and after retreating to his room to sit on the bed Wilson came up to him and 'poked him in the chest and then poked him the nose.'

Stiegler said 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 ground three times.

When Wilson got up from the third knockdown, Stiegler said Wilson ran out of the room and returned with a gun. Stiegler said his first reaction was to grab a closet rod and try to knock the gun out of Wilson's hand, but he was unsuccessful.

Stiegler told authorities he then "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."

After the killing, however, Stiegler continued living in the home in the Orleans Square Apartments in the 500 block of South Maryland Parkway and even had his girlfriend and a son he fathered with her move in.

He would ultimately be evicted from the apartment for failing to pay rent.

The apartment manager later led police to the body after she pulled back a piece of rug under the apartment's stairs and revealed a rectangular area covered with black roofing tar. The manager, who knew Wilson was missing, poked a hole in the tar and let loose the "strong odor of decomposition."

Police ultimately dug through the black roofing tar revealing a 2-inch thick layer of concrete and a plywood layer underneath.

Once the wood was removed Wilson's body was discovered wrapped in plastic sheeting and secured with masking tape. The body had 14 lacerations in the head. Wilson had red duct tape across his mouth, and his knees and ankles were also bound with duct tape.

When the news of Wilson's body being discovered hit the local media, Wilson fled to Arizona.