The fatal stabbing of a Howard University dormitory manager was described by prosecutors yesterday as a "murder for hire" in which the victim's pregnant wife paid her alleged lover $ 250 to kill her husband and then handed over an additional $ 20 for his cabfare home.
Gloria Stewart, 29, a telephone operator and gospel choir member, was arraigned in D.C. Superior Court yesterday on charges of murdering her husband, Robert S.M. Stewart, 38, the resident manager of Howard's Carver Hall. Also charged with first-degree murder in the early Tuesday stabbing was Joseph H. Harrison, 25, described in a police affidavit as Gloria Stewart's lover.
Both Stewart and Harrison pleaded not guilty.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles W. Cobb said the two had admitted planning the murder in statements to police. According to a police affidavit filed with the court, Gloria Stewart said after her arrest that "she has had domestic problems with her husband for some time and is glad that she had it done."
Commissioner Roy M. Ellis denied bond for either defendant, despite a plea by lawyer Renata Pullings that Gloria Stewart be allowed to care for her two children, aged 6 and 8. The children were in a nearby bedroom with their mother when their father was killed, according to police.
Pullings added that Stewart is two months pregnant.
D.C. police said the slaying took place about 2 a.m. in the Stewarts' first-floor apartment in the men's dormitory at 211 Elm St. NW, where Robert Stewart had been manager and head residence counselor since 1977. He also served as an assistant minister at the Mount Bethel Baptist Church at First Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW.
The Rev. Leamon W. White, pastor of the church, said Stewart, a Liberian, was a past president of the Washington chapter of the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas. He also held a doctorate in philosophy from American University, according to a Howard University spokesman.
Gloria Stewart, who was born in Maryland, has worked as a telephone operator at Georgetown University for 10 years, according to Pullings. White described her as a "modest, very quiet kind of person."
"They were always a very cordial couple," White said.
Harrison, 25, of 6812 Pickett Dr., Morningside, worked in a McDonald's Restaurant in Silver Hill, according to police. Harrison turned himself in to D.C. police headquarters Tuesday evening after Stewart named him in her statement to police and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Police also said in the affidavit that Harrison gave a videotaped statement in which he acknowledged being Gloria Stewart's lover and admitted going to her home and "stabbing [her husband] numerous times."
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 8.