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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Man involved in Rachael Anderson disappearance back in jail

Associated Press

LEWISTON – An Idaho man released on bond after pleading guilty to a lesser charge in the disappearance of a Washington woman and agreeing to testify against her estranged husband is back in custody.

Second District Court Judge Jeff Brudie on Wednesday granted a motion by Latah County prosecutors to revoke David C. Stone’s release following allegations that Stone violated a no-contact order by telephoning a witness, the Lewiston Tribune reported.

Stone, 50, was taken into custody Tuesday and is being held in the Latah County Jail without bond while Brudie reviews the reported violation. Stone pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

“I hope that you will give me another chance,” Stone said, reading from a letter he wrote to Brudie.

Authorities say Stone’s ex-wife called police Tuesday to report that Stone called her at about 1 p.m. that day. She said she told Stone he wasn’t supposed to call her and hung up. Police say she also gave them copies of two emails Stone sent to her in the past week. Court documents also say Stone violated a no-contact order by sending two text messages to his daughter.

Rachael Anderson, a 40-year-old mother of four from Clarkston, was in the process of getting divorced when she disappeared April 16, 2010. Authorities say she was lured to a Moscow, Idaho, auto repair shop owned by her estranged husband, Charles A. Capone, where she was drugged and killed. Her body has not been found.

In May, Stone and Capone were charged with first-degree murder, failure to notify a coroner or law enforcement officer about a death and conspiracy to commit both of those crimes.

Capone has pleaded not guilty. His attorney Mark Monson has argued there’s no evidence of Anderson’s death in Idaho, leaving authorities with “speculation and conjecture.”

In December, Stone pleaded guilty to failure to notify law enforcement about a death in Anderson’s disappearance.

His guilty plea on the lesser charge is part of a deal that calls for him to testify at Capone’s trial. If a judge accepts the deal, Stone will be sentenced to seven years in jail, and the murder charge against him will be dropped.

Latah County Prosecutor William Thompson Jr. has said detectives interviewed Stone and believe he is not responsible for Anderson’s death but helped cover it up.

Thompson said a search late last year of the Snake River west of Clarkston was related, in part, to what Stone told investigators.

Capone is being held in the Latah County Jail with a trial scheduled to start June 23.