The death penalty is the ultimate form of punishment for a convicted murderer. It is not a sentence that is doled out haphazardly. It is reserved for the worst of the worst. There is great debate in regard to the death penalty and the inhumanity in it. For a family who has had their child stolen from them by another, it should bring some sort of solace. The knowledge that the murderer will no longer be afforded the opportunity to live is supposed to be comforting and bring closure at the end of it all. The years of trials and appeals continue to bring all of the grief to the surface. So, by the murderer being put to death, it should close that terrible chapter in their lives. For many families, this is not the case though. At the end of the day, their child cannot be brought back, and they are forever frozen in time. This is the case for the Stoner family from Adairsville, Georgia. They will never be able to get back what was stolen from them.
Mary Frances Stone was born January 10,1967 to Roy and Mary Stoner. She had a younger sister named Sallie. Mary Frances was an active member in her church, a majorette and in the gifted program at school. She was a very bright and lovable young lady on the precipice of becoming a teenager. She lived in a small trailer with her family in the small farming town of Adairsville, Georgia.
Friday, November 30, 1979, started as any other day. She ate breakfast with her mom and sister before school. Her mom wanted her to put on a heavier coat, but Mary Frances assured her that she would be fine with a lighter coat. Then, she gave her mom and sister a kiss before heading out the door to head to the bus stop. This would be the last time her family would see her.
The school day went as any other. Her sister, Sallie, reported that Mary Frances wrote about how she was going to dance with the NYC ballet. She also wrote that she thought the Atlanta Falcons were going to win the Super Bowl. She pondered whether that day would be her last. After school, she got on the bus and headed home.
Darrell Gene Devier was working as a tree trimmer in Adairsville. The crew was working near the Stoner driveway. He had noticed Mary Frances and made lewd comments to his coworkers about her. One coworker reported that he said he wanted to have sex with her. Another reported that Devier said, It’s almost time for the good-looking girl to get home from school.” At the time, Devier was in his early twenty’s. Much too old to be making those type comments about a 12-year-old girl.
That Friday, the crew was given the rest of the day off work after lunch. This would interfere with Devier getting to watch Mary Frances get off the bus. So, he decided to come back and park near her driveway.
Around 4:00pm, two witnesses reported seeing a dark colored Ford Pinto sitting parked near the Stoner driveway. They reported the driver to be a male with long hair and a beard. Several students on the bus also reported seeing the car. The student that got off the bus at the next stop saw the car pull away with two passengers in it.
The next day, December 1,1979, hunters found the body of 12-year-old Mary Frances Stoner in the woods at the Floyd-Bartow County line. The autopsy revealed that she died from blunt force trauma to the head in combination with strangulation. She had been sexually assaulted and then her attacker crushed her head with a 49-pound boulder and then he proceeded to choke her. This heinous crime rocked the small town.
Five days later, officers arrested Darrell Gene Devier and charged him with the death of Mary Frances. He was already on the police’s radar after another sexual assault that had occurred in the area. He drove a dark colored Ford Pinto and had long hair and a beard.
Devier told investigating officers that he was in the area searching for places to rent when he saw Mary Frances get off the bus. As the bus pulled away, he pulled into the driveway to ask Mary Frances for directions. He said that he pulled a paper out of the dash, and she sat down in the car to look at it and help him when he closed the door and drove away with her. He took her to a wooded area and instructed her to get into the backseat of the car. According to Devier, Mary Frances asked if he was going to rape her. He told her yes and to take her clothes off. After he assaulted her, he ordered her to get out of the car and put her clothes on. He then claimed that he was going to leave her there tied to a tree, but she began screaming and pushed him. He pushed her back and she hit her head on a rock. So, he then became afraid and started choking her. Then he left her there to die.
Investigators were not buying his story and knew they needed additional help to make sure they could get a conviction. The local police called in FBI profiler: John Douglas. He is reported as being one of the first profilers. With only the information provided over the phone, John created an UNSUB profile that matched Devier perfectly. He described the UNSUB to be a white male who is divorced and considers himself to be a macho man. He would be a high school dropout who served in the military for a short while. He would also have previous sex crime charges. The police instantly knew that Devier was their man. John instructed the police on the best way to interrogate Devier in order to get a confession.
Initially, investigators brought Devier in and performed a polygraph test. John Douglas had warned them that he was a sociopath and that a polygraph would not provide accurate results. The results of Devier’s polygraph were inconclusive. Verifying John Douglas’s analysis of Devier.
John gave specific directions of how the interrogation should be handled. He had them question Devier in the evening in a dimly lit room in order to relax him. John had them take stacks of folders into the room with Devier’s named tagged on numerous pages. He had them mention the issue of blood spatter and how he should have gotten blood on his hands. Most importantly, John had investigators place the blood covered rock from the crime scene on the table a few feet away from Devier and at a 45-degree angle from his line of sight.
John also instructed investigators to fake sympathy for Devier and place blame on the victim. As stomach turning as it may have been, this tactic helped to secure a confession from Devier. They told him they knew he did not intend to murder Mary Frances, otherwise he would have brought an actual weapon with him and would not have used a rock. Devier then confessed to the crime.
It took three trials to finally secure the conviction. The first trial was declared a mistrial after a juror was found to have talked about the case with a prosecution witness. The second trial ended in a conviction and sentence of the death penalty, but the state approved a new trial after an appeal. The third trial resulted in another guilty verdict with the death penalty as the sentence. On May 17, 1995, Devier was set to be to put death. There were storms in the area that knocked the power out just as the Supreme Court was providing a temporary stay of execution. This meant the General attorney had to rush from the prison in order to get cell phone service to get the call. The next day on May 18, 1995, the stay of execution expired and Darrell Gene Devier was put to death via the electric chair. Prior to his execution, he had two BLTs and two cartons of chocolate milk. He was also allowed to say goodbye to his family.
Devier was afforded comforts and privileges that his victim was not. Although there is still great debate in regard to using the death penalty, I cannot sympathize with this man. He admitted to his crime and was reported to say that he would do it again if he found himself free. He took the life of a beautiful, smart, and incredibly talented young girl that had the world at her feet. He was provided with a place to stay, food, entertainment, and medical care while he awaited his execution. All of those luxuries were things that he did not deserve after he viciously stole the life of Mary Frances Stoner.
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