Slow Motion Murder Case Moves Ahead In Ely, Prelim Dec. 11th

More than four months after he was arrested for a three year old murder Stuart Eugene Cole will have his preliminary hearing Friday, December 11.

Cole is accused of killing his former roommate Lavance A. Stewart in November 2012.

“White Pine County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a body that was laying in the roadway on US 93 near the VFW Hall.  When Deputies arrived they located a black male adult who was laying in the roadway and was deceased,” wrote Captain Scott Henroid in a September 2015  press release. “The deceased was identified as Lavance A. Stewart age 26 of Ely.  During a lengthy investigation the Sheriff’s Office determined that the deceased was a passenger in a vehicle and had been forced out of the vehicle causing him injuries that led to his death. The operator of the vehicle was identified as Stuart E. Cole age 28 of Ely.

A no bail arrest warrant was obtained from the Ely Justice Court charging Cole with open murder and failure to stop at a scene of an accident involving personal injury or death. On May 22, 2015 Cole was located and arrested in Mississippi. Cole refused to waive extradition, so a State of Nevada Governor’s warrant was obtained. Cole was then extradited back to Nevada and is currently in custody in the White Pine County Jail.

Both men had moved to Ely 3-5 years before and had shared a house together. Cole had been in trouble with local law enforcement almost from the moment he arrived. According to court records he was involved in several bar fights around town and had been found guilty of several gross misdemeanors and probation violations.

However according to friends and family those arrests both before and after the alleged murder were the result of racism.

“He was constantly being hassled,” said ex-girl friend Deleah Kaamasee who is also the mother of Cole’s son Khaos. “Stuart and I met when I was working in Las Vegas. We moved up to Ely.”

While the sheriff’s department press release did not mention when the warrant for Cole’s arrest was issued Ely Justice Court Documents suggest that the original warrant was filed in November 2014 two years after the crime. That warrant was later modified in April 2015.

“Stuart wasn’t hiding from anyone during those two years,” said the man’s current girl friend, Lynn Nicholson. “He started a business, got a business license. He lived openly here in Clinton. He wasn’t hiding at all.”

There have been charges of racism in Ely in the past, however not against African Americans whose population is almost nothing but rather against the native Shoshone. Kaamasee is Shoshone.

“Stuart was arrested and held for extradition from MS to Ely for more than two months. We alerted the FBI and NAACP of the transport and feared for his life after being told a SPECIAL investigator was going to try and rough him up into making a false confession. Stuart’s family was informed that he was picked up for transport on July 24, 2015 and he was not transported directly to Ely; he arrived a week and 1 day. We, his family was worried to death. Calling everyday hoping he wouldn’t be found dead in the dessert or somewhere and his body not being able to be found until days, months, or years later,” wrote mother Janet Williams on the High Desert Advocate’s website. “Stuart Cole is respected by his all his former employees, he is a mentor to young adults, and a God fearing young man. He was tore from making a livelihood for he and his family.