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THE EVIDENCE AGAINST
JOHN WESLEY
by Donna J. Wade
No one who knew Terese Stewart believes she killed herself. Not then, not
now. After the Riverside County DA successfully prosecuted John Wesley and his wife for
defrauding Mary Stewart, county investigators repeatedly refused to re-open their
investigation into her daughter's death. When Mary presented the privately funded
investigation to the DA's office, they took the low road. In an incredible display of
arrogance, the DA decided that the fact that Mary Stewart spent her life savings
investigating the death of her daughter made her a prime suspect! Here's what
the privately funded investigation unearthed:
THE OPPORTUNITY
Wesley had keys to the Stewart home, and routinely came and went as he pleased, even when
neither Mary nor Terese were there.
THE MEANS
Wesley knew Mary had recently been given a gun because she showed it to him. Still in the
manufacturer's box, the gun was kept inside a sack on Mary's dresser. Anyone with access
to her home could have found it.
SPECIFIC DETAILS THE KILLER WOULD KNOW
The day after Terese was found dead, before any official police or coroner's reports
became available, Wesley told Mary, Shane and others specific details about the incident.
He later claimed the police detectives provided him with the information, but it is
unlikely that police detectives would have shared such details with anyone. Wesley
said Terese had been shot while standing, then placed in the chair where Mary found her. A
subsequent exhumation and autopsy of the body showed that the bullet's trajectory
validated his assertion.
ATTEMPTS TO IMPLICATE MARY
Wesley told Mary and her son that there were three bullets in the gun, and that they would
find that it had been wiped clean of fingerprints. According to experienced, retired LAPD
investigators interviewed about this case, had Terese actually handled the gun, smudges
would have been found on the weapon. RSO forensics personnel found no prints or smudges in
their examination of the gun. Wesley also stated he found a fine spray of blood splatter
high on the wall of the room where Terese was slain, but when interviewed by investigators
he indicated he never entered the bedroom. Mary’s PI noted that only a person who has
been present at a death would know such a wound ejects a “fine spray.”
The day after Terese's death, Wesley and his wife met surreptitiously with RSO Det.
Brinkman, claiming to be "anonymous" neighbors, and gave him false information
about the nature of Mary and Terese's relationship in order to implicate Mary in her
daughter's death. He further claimed Mary was causing problems at Giant Computer by trying
to take control.
Apparently in Wesley's mind, given the claims he
made recounted in statements by clients and vendors, he was supposed to control Giant,
despite the fact that he owned no Giant shares and had been hired by Mary (the CEO,
incorporator, and major shareholder of record) to act only as a manager.
THREATS AND LIES
In a contentious meeting with Mary the day of Terese's death, Wesley threatened to break
her, to make her cry. He then insisted on knowing exactly when Mary would be home that
night. He later bragged to Judy Wagner that he had threatened Mary, and that he expected
to be considered a suspect because he was the last person to see Terese alive, at
approximately 6 PM the day of her death. But he told the police a different story. Wesley
claimed to have been with a Temecula real estate agent, James Orndorff, until around 10
PM, then he and Lynn went directly home.
According to Orndorff's statement to investigators, he did show the Wesleys property that
evening, but he felt the Wesleys were stalling him because they spent "way more time
than was necessary" looking at the lot. Then Wesley insisted they have dinner
together. They arrived at the restaurant at closing time, but Wesley convinced the owner
to stay open and serve them dinner. They left the restaurant together around 9:45 PM.
Orndorff, Wesley's "airtight alibi" according to DA Investigator Silva, was
interviewed by Stewart's private investigators in July 2001, and again in July 2002. At
that time, he stated that he had never been interviewed by sheriff's deputies or by anyone
from the DA's office. He recalled that Wesley spoke frequently in public about Terese's
"suicide," describing the scene in explicit detail, to garner sympathy from
associates at business networking meetings. He also indicated that he believed Wesley
capable of murder.
Sometime after his dinner with the Wesleys, Orndorff had occasion to pass the lot the
Wesleys allegedly wanted to buy. He was shocked to find fencing and kennels with Wesley's
"sled-dogs" inside. He marveled at Wesley's audacity in setting up shop on land
he didn't own.
According to Dr. Peggy Taylor's statement, she spoke with Wesley at the Stewart home after
sheriff and coroner officials completed their investigation, while Mary went to pick up
her son, Shane. Wesley told Dr. Taylor that Terese had been killed by a narcissistic
personality, and tried to convince her that Mary had pulled the trigger.
This statement to Dr. Taylor is pertinent because Mary had given Wesley information
regarding his narcissistic personality traits the day of Terese's death. When asked her
professional opinion of the Wesleys, Dr. Taylor told investigators she would describe John
as "insincere, narcissistic and sociopathic."
BIGAMY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Mary's investigators also discovered that Wesley had not divorced his previous wife,
Shirley, before marrying Lynn. Shirley revealed that Wesley blinded her in one eye during
a domestic violence incident. She also stated that Wesley had repeatedly beaten his
daughter, then locked her in her room for periods up to two weeks, slipping food to her
once daily.
Investigators discovered numerous other victims of Wesley's scams in California and other
states, as well as several aliases and social security numbers he'd used.
CONFLICTING STORIES
At Terese's wake, Lynn Wesley told Mary's neighbor, Sara Neely, that she and John were at
Mary's house at 10 PM the night Terese was killed to "do some computer work,"
but they left because no one was home. The Wesley's had keys and were accustomed to being
in Mary's home when no one was there. Why change the pattern? This contradicts John's
assertion that they went directly home.
An independent witness reported seeing someone
matching Wesley's description in a compact car parked outside the Stewart residence
between 10-10:25 PM the night of Terese's death. Two witnesses (Arlene Wood and Eric Lutz)
told investigators they observed Terese's truck in the driveway between 9:40-10:25 PM that
night, indicating that Terese was home at the time Lynn Wesley said no one was there.
Friends of the Wesleys told investigators that when the Wesleys visited their home,
John steered the conversation to Terese's death, intimating that he knew the real
story. John cited their meeting and dinner with James Orndorff to numerous people as
evidence they couldn't possibly have been involved in Terese's death. These people found
it odd that John repeatedly asserted his alibi when there was no need for one.
FORENSIC EVIDENCE
Independent ballistics testing on the gun demonstrated that the only way the shell casing
could have landed between the seat cushions was if it ricocheted off something and landed
there, or had been purposely placed there.
After the sheriff and coroner's office ended their
investigation, while Mary was gone to get Shane, Wesley claimed he "found"
Terese's keys atop a TV stand “where Mary always puts her keys.” Mary contends
she always keeps her keys in her purse. Months later, when Mary received copies of the
photos taken by crime scene technicians, the photos clearly show Terese's keys inside her
bedroom. The only way those keys could have been "found" on the TV stand was if
someone removed them from her room after the photos were taken and placed them on the TV
stand.
The issue of the keys is relevant, because Terese
would have needed a key to enter the house where she was killed, yet when she was
murdered, the keys were locked in her mini-apartment outside the house. Someone with keys
to the house had to be a party in her death.
When confronted by private investigators with the crime scene photos showing Terese's keys
in her room, Wesley stated that it indicated that either he or Mary was the killer. Mary
was not in Terese's room between the taking of the forensic pictures and Wesley's
"finding" of the keys on the TV stand. The only two people in Terese's room
after investigators were Wesley and Dr. Peggy Taylor.
When the Stewarts received Terese's clothing from the Coroner, Shane called attention to a
bloody mark roughly the diameter of the gun barrel on Terese's blouse above her left
breast area. Sheriff's investigators reported that this mark was probably made when the
gun dropped from Terese's hand after she shot herself, before falling and lodging between
the seat cushions and becoming concealed by her arm. But the PI'S offered another
interpretation: the killer shot Terese in the head, placed her in the chair, then
attempted to ensure she was dead by a shot to the heart, but the gun jammed.
MOTIVE
Greed and retribution. Wesley has a history of violence whenever his efforts to control
and manipulate proved unsuccessful. Though Wesley admitted to investigators that he had
Terese's software, he stated it was worthless, yet the programmer who finished the work
suggested that Wesley would be able to sell it for $1200-$1600 per copy.
Wesley had Mary take out a $250,000 life insurance policy, payable to whomever controlled
Giant. Though Mary had not yet signed her living will, the Wesleys had forged Giant
documents in order to take over control of the corporate assets; it is not difficult to
imagine them forging Mary's signature on the living trust after her demise. Mary believes
Wesley's insistence that she purchase a cemetery plot next to Terese's indicated that she
was to be his next victim, so that his takeover of all her assets would be complete.
Serious questions remain about what really happened the night Terese Stewart died,
but no one in Riverside County law enforcement seems the least bit interested in answering
them. In fact, they are doing their best to hinder any further investigation and any
review of the evidence by outside sources such as Victim of Crime advocates. The DA's
office also rejected an offer of asistance from agents in the FBI's Cold Case Unit. What
are they hiding, and why?
[ Home ] [ Terese Ranee Stewart ] [ Justice for Terese Part 1 ] [ Recent Developments ] [ Police Incompetence? ] [ Judicial Failures ] [ Protect & Serve? ] [ Helpful Links ] [ How You Can Help ]
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