Watch Mommy Die. Michael Benson
that Stanko had other e-mail accounts, they were obliged to turn over all info regarding those as well.
The second subpoena was addressed to Horry Telephone Cooperative, ordering pretty much the same scope of info, only this time regarding the e-mail account called [email protected].
And the third was to Google Mail (Gmail) in Mountain View, California, regarding the e-mail account known as [email protected].
In another courtroom, a similar process was under way granting a search warrant to Detective Chuck Powell, allowing him to seize and search Henry Lee Turner’s cell phone, in particular info identifying incoming and outgoing calls on that phone between April 5 and April 11. The info should also include the dates and times local phone towers were accessed by the phone between those same dates.
Georgetown County sheriff’s deputies revisited the Socastee library on the afternoon of April 11. Library employees Tracy Carey and John Gaumer each signed a “Voluntary Consent to Search” form, which allowed Georgetown County sheriff’s deputies to search the library thoroughly without a warrant.
Investigator Tracy M. Lewis seized Laura Ling’s Gateway computer—screen, keyboard, mouse, and printer—in hopes there would be information in there, a hint as to where Stephen Stanko was headed.
Library employees expressed anxiety that Stanko was going to come back. After all, the library was like a second home to him. A deputy was assigned to guard the library door.
Seizure of the computers at the Ling crime scene required a search warrant, and this was granted that same day by Chief Magistrate Isaac L. Pyatt Sr. to Georgetown County investigator Tom Digsby.
To justify the warrant, the affidavit said: During the search of the home it was discovered that the suspect was a published author and that he did research and corresponded with others on computers.
Several computers were located in the home, the affidavit said, some in the room that appeared to be the suspect’s “office.” The computer found in the home’s community area also had Stanko as one of the listed profiles:
The victim of the sexual assault advised investigators that the CompuDirect computer was the suspect’s primary computer but he did use all of them at times. It is common for those who use computers to store information on them and to use them to correspond with others via e-mail or in chat rooms.
Therefore, it was reasonable to expect that the hard drive would contain information that would be helpful to the murder/sexual assault investigation, and might be helpful in locating the suspect.
On the afternoon of April 11, columnist Steve Huff, formerly of the Court TV website, and now with his own blog, was among the first to make a connection between the newsworthy manhunt under way in the Southeast and the published book that listed Stephen Stanko as a coauthor.
Living in Prison, Huff noted, was written by two college profs and an inmate. Stanko provided the experience, while Gillespie and Crews offered historical and systemic context.
Different chapters in the book were written by different authors, and who wrote what was clearly marked. Huff had no problem determining what Stanko had and hadn’t written.
In one passage, Stanko wondered if a nation’s morality could be judged by how it treated its prisoners. Stanko wrote that the United States was number one in the world in prison population, and that the subject of the American corrections system was polarizing and frequently sparked heated debate.
Huff did some research online and learned that the book received a handful of reviews after its release in 2004. Critics agreed that the best part was Stanko’s input, as he vividly personalized the prisoner experience.
The book seemingly offered a strong voice to activists seeking prison reform, but was a less than satisfying read for anyone seeking entertainment. Every strand of prose was braided with self-pity.
Great pains were taken to establish each prison indignity and humiliation. Maybe the self-centered nature of Stanko’s writing was of little concern to those whose tub he thumped, but to Joe Six-pack it seemed like a lot of whiny verbiage—e.g., his living space was six and a half by eleven; he had to defecate in front of his cell mates, who were larger and of a different race. For twenty-three hours a day, there was no way to get away from his cell mates, except on weekends when it was twenty-four hours a day. And cell mates wouldn’t leave him alone. All that stress and psychological punishment built up inside a man. A prisoner could release that pressure only through communication and interaction with cell mates. And it didn’t always go well. One fight, and a cell could become a “battlefield.”
Just as bad was the neglect that prisoners endured from their captors. One night, Stanko broke his pencil and had to wait four days for a new one. He worked his way through the system. Every time they moved him from one prison to the next, he was shackled all over again, to men imprisoned for similar crimes. Even if he qualified for one job, they gave him another, according to their needs rather than his. Most guys pulled cafeteria and yard duty.
A lot of blah-blah-blah for an argument that could be rebutted so simply: Prisoners aren’t supposed to like prison. In fact, the idea is to make the prisoner as miserable as possible so he won’t want to come back.
“Be thankful you have an f’ing toilet” was the effective, and largely unspoken, rebuttal to Living in Prison’s theme.
As all of this was going down, following the case on television was Penny Ling, who was lying on a hospital bed, a clean white bandage covering her stitched throat.
It occurred to her that Stephen Stanko wasn’t acting like a man who was hunted. He was going to bars, partying with gusto with people who moments before had been strangers.
Maybe, she thought, he wasn’t in a hurry because he didn’t know about the quantity of publicity he was receiving. Maybe he hadn’t seen a newspaper, hadn’t watched the news. The types of places he was hanging out in usually had sports on the TV.
Maybe he thought she was dead, Penny wondered. Maybe he was taking his sweet time running away because he didn’t know he’d left a living witness.
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