A 31-year-old man who police said planted a pipe bomb near Colonial Williamsburg last year is asking a federal judge to prevent prosecutors from using evidence in court suggesting he tried to hire a hitman to kill his wife.
Defense attorney Keith Kimball has filed a motion saying that introducing evidence that his client, Stephen James Powers, allegedly tried to arrange the killing of his wife while he was incarcerated at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail would be “unfairly prejudicial.”
Powers is charged with possession of unregistered destructive devices after two search warrants on Oct. 20 and Dec. 4, 2017 allegedly uncovered destructive devices at Powers’ home in Gloucester. The investigation was opened after police said a pipe bomb exploded Oct. 19 in a parking lot near Berret’s Seafood on Merchants Square.
The motion, filed Aug. 30, asks the judge to exclude “certain evidence and alleged statements and writings allegedly made by Mr. Powers.”
According to the motion, Powers allegedly spoke with another inmate while in jail and made statements about hiring someone to kill his wife. There are also letters believed to be written by Powers relating to a solicitation to commit murder, the motion said, one of which is titled “Hitman for hire.”
The motion argues that the evidence of hiring a hitman is not relevant to the explosive device charge.
“The issue or issues in dispute at trial will be whether Mr. Powers possessed the alleged materials and/or parts that allegedly amount to explosive devices,” the motion reads. “Whether or not he made statements pertaining to his wife does not shed light on whether or not he possessed the specific items alleged to be explosive devices.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has not filed a response to the motion but has 14 days after the motion was filed to do so, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Joshua Stueve said.
Both Stueve and Kimball declined to comment on the case.
Once a response is filed, a court date will be set to hear the motion before Powers’ trial. A jury trial is scheduled for 10 a.m. Dec. 4 in federal court.
The motion comes about three months after the case against Powers was dropped in Williamsburg-James City County General District Court, then taken up by federal prosecutors.
While the case was in the local courts, Powers’ then-attorney argued his client should be hospitalized. Powers indicated to a court-appointed psychologist that he had memory loss, but only for the time period around when the pipe bomb was planted in Colonial Williamsburg.
Powers also told the psychologist “the demons are eating part of my memory.”
The psychologist did not believe Powers, however, and told a general district court judge he thought Powers was feigning mental illness.
The judge declined to hospitalize Powers.
