Wake Forest man pleads guilty to killing his wife

A Wake Forest man charged with killing his wife in October at her home pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder and was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Lanson Paul Stalf’s admission of guilt was part of a deal in which the Wake County District Attorney’s Office dropped charges of breaking and entering and assault with a deadly weapon and agreed not to seek the death penalty for Stalf. The only other option was life without parole.

Stalf, 39, was arrested in Mississippi on Oct. 30, three days after prosecutors said he killed his wife, Stephanie Lynn Autry. She was found in her home on Iyar Way in the Shearon Farms subdivision off Capital Boulevard on Oct. 27.

Friday, he never raised his eyes while he stood during questioning by Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway, softly saying “yes” or “no” to questions.

Autry, 34, died less than two weeks after Stalf was paroled from prison after serving six months for felony larceny. Stalf was charged in Wake County in December 2013 with common law robbery, but the charge was eventually reduced to felony larceny from a person. He was sentenced to one year and six months in prison last April, state records show, and began his prison sentence May 7.

In describing the murder for Ridgeway, Assistant District Attorney Becky Holt said Autry had decided when Stalf was sent to prison that she wanted a divorce, but she was letting him sleep on her couch while he tried to find somewhere to live.

She had dropped Stalf off at an addiction treatment center the day she died, Holt said, but he decided to return to her house to drink.

He used a rock to break a window and enter the house and spent the day there. He found two movie ticket stubs that suggested Autry was dating, she said.

“He was angry that she was seeing other people,” Holt said.

She said he set an alarm clock so he would be awake when Autry returned that evening from her job as a nurse and met her as she was coming into the house from her garage.

He hit her in the head with a hammer, which police later found at the scene, but she did not fall, Holt said. He used a metal cable to strangle her after demanding the PIN for her debit card, then put a trash bag over her head “to make sure she wasn’t breathing,” the prosecutor told Ridgeway.

Stalf sat with his back bowed and his head down during Holt’s recounting of the crime and his arrest in Mississippi following a bank robbery in which witnesses described Autry’s stolen white VW SUV with Oregon plates.

Stalf and Autry had married in Oregon, Holt said, and their son, Jude, now 3, was born there.

Autry’s father, Ray Autry, read a statement on behalf of himself and her mother, Kathy, who stood at his side.

Several of Autry’s five siblings spoke to Ridgeway before he imposed the required sentence.

They said Jude asks them, “Where is my mommy?” and “Why is my mommy dead in heaven?”

Someday, they said, he will understand that his father murdered his mother. Jude will be raised by an aunt and uncle, they said.

Lora Lenander, one of Autry’s siblings, described how their sister Kelly suffered heart failure and a stroke after hearing of Autry’s slaying.

Autry’s brother, Michael, told Ridgeway he had worked for days on a statement for the hearing, but he said “the bottom line” was “words will never describe” his family’s loss.

“Rot in hell ....,” he shouted at Stalf before apologizing to Ridgeway and walking out of the courtroom in the Wake County Justice Center.

“What kind of monster does this?” asked Sue Elbel, one of Autry’s sisters.

Michael Autry said after the sentencing that Stalf appeared to have gained weight while he was in prison and had grown a beard he did not have when Autry last saw him. He also said that Stalf’s heavily tattooed left arm was new.

“That’s prison ink,” Autry said.

Stalf’s parole was revoked after his arrest, and he has been serving time in the Scotland Correctional facility, Holt said. He was brought from there in a prison jumpsuit to be sentenced.

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 10:31 AM with the headline "Wake Forest man pleads guilty to killing his wife."