May 12, 2008 5:04 pm US/Eastern
Ex-Husband Charged In Baseball Bat Beating Death
DALLAS (CBS) ―
A man who authorities suspect severely beat his ex-wife with a baseball bat before perching himself on an overpass for about 90 minutes is in police custody. The woman later died from her injuries.
After the attack Brent Douglas Stephens reportedly told someone that he was going to commit suicide. Carrollton police say the man spent some time on westbound George Bush Turnpike over Interstate-35 sitting on the ledge with his feet dangling over Monday morning.
Police were first alerted to the scene over the interstate after a driver called 911 and said it looked like a man might jump.
Carrollton police negotiators managed to talk Stephens off the bridge and took him into custody about 11 a.m.
According to police the man's ex-wife, Denise A. Stephens, was attacked at her place of employment. The woman was an office manager for a psychiatrist on Hillcrest Road. The 36-year-old woman had worked at the office for the past eight years.
Police say Brent Stephens waited for his ex-wife to get to work and then attacked her with a bat.
The victim, who was the mother to three children, had been divorced from the suspect for more than a year. The woman reportedly had been living with her mother in McKinney.
Denise Stephens had a protective order against her ex-husband, who just last week admitted in court that he broke into his ex-wife's McKinney home.Monday afternoon Brent Stephens was charged with murder. He remains in jail on $1,000,000 bond.
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