Man given 18 years in sister-in-law's killing

EVERETT

A Seattle man who dodged murder and rape charges until DNA evidence caught up with him 24 years later was sentenced yesterday to 18 years in prison.

James Lucius Stephens Jr., 46, pleaded guilty in Snohomish County Superior Court last month to second-degree murder in the slaying of his sister-in-law, Kimberly Kuntz.

As part of that plea agreement, Deputy Prosecutor Paul Stern dropped first-degree-murder charges. Yesterday's sentence, handed down by Superior Court Judge Richard Thorpe, was within Stern's recommendation of between 15 and 20 years.

Until the plea agreement, Stephens had denied killing Kuntz. The body of the 18-year-old Mountlake Terrace woman, was found in May 1976 in the Lynnwood apartment of Stephens' then estranged wife, who was Kuntz's sister.

Donna Stephens, now divorced from Stephens, returned home and saw a masked man flee the apartment.

Prosecutors initially filed charges of first-degree murder and rape against Stephens but dropped them due to lack of evidence.

Stephens was charged again after a private Seattle crime lab last summer matched DNA extracted from Stephens' blood to a semen stain found on Kuntz's shirt.