Lisa Marchesoni
Posted: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 3:31 pm

Convicted murderer Mac Ray McFarlane leaves court to serve his life sentence.

Lascassas resident Steve Stump waited 28 years for justice for his brother Gene’s murder in 1982.

Stump’s eyes filled with tears after a Circuit Court jury of nine women and three men convicted Mac Ray McFarlane, 50, of Bristol of premeditated, first-degree murder and second-degree murder of Gene Stump. The jurors sentenced McFarlane to life in prison.

McFarlane showed no emotion when he heard the verdict. Circuit Court Judge Don Ash accepted the jury’s verdict and the life sentence.

Defense attorneys Luke Evans and Chris Richardson were expected to ask for a new trial.

Gene Stump’s decomposed and headless body was found in April 1982 after he disappeared a month earlier. During the trial, Dr. William Bass recreated Stump’s skull and showed jurors a bullet hole in his skull.

After the verdict, Steve Stump gathered his thoughts and composure for a moment before speaking. Gene, who was his older brother, moved to Tennessee to find work because there were few jobs in their native West Virginia. After the younger brother graduated, Gene Stump asked him to come to Tennessee to work.

The younger brother lived with his brother and his wife, Mary, until they divorced in 1981. They remained close.

After his brother disappeared in March 1982, Steve Stump learned McFarlane told people his brother left with hippies to go to Ohio.

“That’s not true,” Steve Stump said. “Gene would have never left without driving his own vehicle. I know he would never have left without saying something.”

Stump went by McFarlane’s house three times to ask if he had seen his brother. McFarlane and his wife, Donna, told him they hadn’t seen him.

Through the next 28 years, Stump put information together. He wondered how McFarlane received his brother’s income tax check and cashed it.

“I’ve always said he (McFarlane) did it,” Stump said. “They’re going to get him. I always told Dad they’d get him.”

His parents are now deceased.

Stump said he was glad McFarlane’s former wife, Donna Burroughs, and his other two ex-wives who testified, “don’t have to look over their shoulder” in fear of McFarlane.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Stump said. “I’m glad it’s over, not only for me but for the other people who were here.”

Burroughs hugged Stump after the verdict and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m just glad the Stump family has closure and I’m happy with the verdict,” Burroughs said.

District Attorney William Whitesell said he was pleased with the jury verdict.

“Anytime you charge someone with first-degree murder and the jury convicts for first-degree murder, it’s like hitting a home run.”

Whitesell credited his assistant Paul Newman for preparing the case for trial and sheriff’s Cold Case Detective Lt. Bill Sharp and Detective Sgt. Dan Goodwin for their investigation.

“I was proud of the former wives,” Whitesell said. “I thought it took a lot of courage to come forward. Obviously, they had been terrorized over a number of years.”

Evans said he was concerned with his client being convicted for first-degree, premeditated murder based on the testimony of five witnesses.

“I don’t think the state carried their burden beyond a reasonable doubt for first-degree murder based on the inconsistencies in the statements by state witnesses,” Evans said. “Obviously, the jury disagreed with me.

“It’s scary to me that someone could be convicted for premeditated murder based on allegations they said they did it with no physical evidence whatsoever linking him to the crime,” Evans said.

In his motion for a new trial, Evans said he plans to raise issues about evidence presented at the trial. If Ash doesn’t grant a new trial, attorneys will appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Newman said this was the oldest murder case prosecuted in Rutherford County.

He credited the detectives who kept investigating until they obtained witnesses to testify, getting evidence as late as Jan. 4.

“The Cold Case Unit is very, very successful,” Newman said. “It’s been a great asset to law enforcement in the community.”

Forensic anthropologist Dr. William Bass “was amazing in he was able to put the skull back together and demonstrated the bullet hole,” Newman said. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents analyzed the evidence.

Witnesses, including McFarlane’s three ex-wives, the two friends and a couple who heard McFarlane threaten to kill Stump contributed to the case.

“I think what convinced the jury was the overwhelming evidence from the witnesses,” Newman said.

Newman thanked MTSU criminal justice interns who helped accommodate witnesses during the trial.

Sharp said MacFarlane was identified as a suspect within 24 hours by former Detectives Bob Asbury, Steve Pickel, Virgil Gammon and David Grisham. Detectives Todd Sparks and Chuck Barnes reopened the investigation in 2006.

Goodwin said through the investigation, they learned McFarlin changed his name twice since the murder and lived throughout the southeast. After he shot himself in 1982, he spent extensive time in Parthenon Pavilion. When released, he obtained an attorney so detectives could not question him about the murder.

McFarlin was sentenced to seven years in prison for the armed robbery of Kwik Sak in La Vergne but served only seven months. He was believed a suspect in an armed robbery of My Hand gas station Nov. 5, 1981, Goodwin said. He was convicted in 1999 of stealing $36,000 worth of copper from his employer, but got pretrial diversion in Simpson County, Kentucky.

The detectives credited Whitesell and Newman with preparing and prosecuting the case and the witnesses for testifying.

Sharp described MacFarlane as “pure evil.”

Goodwin said the jury can “rest easy knowing they put a bad person in prison.”

He encouraged other people who have information about a murder to contact law enforcement officers to help solve the cases.