04/17/2007

Associated Press

The mother of an alleged witness in the notorious Jeffrey MacDonald murder case says in court filings that her daughter confessed to her twice that the former Army doctor was innocent.

MacDonald, who was convicted in 1979 of killing his wife and two daughters at Fort Bragg, has appealed. On Monday, his lawyers filed an affidavit signed by Helena Stoeckley's mother, who is living in a Fayetteville nursing home.

Stoeckley died in 1983, but her mother, who goes by the same name, wrote that her daughter confessed to her shortly before she died.

MacDonald has claimed that Stoeckley witnessed the killing. The elder Stoeckley said her daughter had wanted to set the record straight and wished she hadn't been in the house at the time of the murders.

According to the affidavit dated March 31, the younger Stoeckley, her boyfriend at the time and two other men went to the MacDonald family's apartment to harass the doctor for being hard on drug users like them.

Two of the men killed MacDonald's wife, Colette, and his 2-year-old and 5-year-old daughters, Stoeckley said her daughter told her.

"On the second occasion during which she confided in me, she told me she could no longer live with the guilt of knowing she had been in the house but lied about it at the trial," Stoeckley wrote. "She told me she was afraid to tell the truth because she was afraid of the prosecutor."

Stoeckley, 86, also said she believes her daughter's confession.

"I've decided to give my statement now because of my advanced age, and because I don't believe he should be in prison," she wrote.

MacDonald, 63, is serving three life sentences at Federal Correctional Institution near Cumberland, Md. His case was dramatized in a best-selling book and television miniseries, "Fatal Vision."

At MacDonald's trial, the late Stoeckley said she wasn't involved and claimed not to know who committed the murders. She changed her story later, but federal judges who have ruled on MacDonald's past appeals said Stoeckley's confessions were unreliable and pointed to her mental illness and past heavy drug use.

The latest affidavit from Stoeckley's mother doesn't change things, said Jim Blackburn, lead prosecutor in the case.

"She confessed before, so what difference does that make?" Blackburn asked. "I'm not surprised that she made another confession. Every time the FBI interviewed her, she recanted. She's a tragic situation."

MacDonald's appeal is mainly based on a retired federal marshal's story about Stoeckley feeling pressure from Blackburn to change her story at trial.

Blackburn said he and fellow prosecutor Brian Murtaugh never intimidated Stoeckley.

"Neither Brian nor I threatened her or intimidated her or suggested to her what she should say or not say," he said.

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Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com