MOTHER SAYS DRUGS PLANTED ON SON

The mother of Keith Stevenson says she can prove her son didn't have drugs
in his pocket when he was shot and killed 2 1/2 years ago, and she does not
believe the men imprisoned for the shooting were his killers.

Cora Stevenson made the remarks yesterday, after The Tennessean published a
story quoting court records that showed the 15-year-old Glencliff High
School student was in a crack house with drugs and money in his pockets
when he died.

"I just want people to know he died three minutes from home," Cora
Stevenson said yesterday.

"You can say what you want about Edgehill Village, but not everyone did
crack. I didn't do crack and Keith didn't do crack. If I had let Keith, a
15-year-old, work at a crack house, I should be arrested."

Stevenson and her daughter Vickie Stevenson -- Keith's sister -- held a
news conference last night at the 23rd Psalm Coffee House. Both mother and
daughter contend that the evidence had been tampered with.

Sometime after Keith Stevenson was murdered, they say, someone took some of
his belongings, such as keys and jewelry, off his body. And, they contend,
drugs were planted on him.

Initial police reports about Stevenson's death said the teen-ager had been
playing video games at a friend's house on Reservoir Court on Sept. 7,
1997, when he heard a knock at the door.

When he opened the door, Stevenson was shot and killed -- with bullets
police said were intended for his friend, Michael Battle.

But the newly released documents show Stevenson had two small plastic bags
of crack and $853 in his pockets when he was killed. Police now say there
was crack cooking on the kitchen stove.

Tino Skinner, 23, received a 16-year prison sentence after pleading no
contest to a charge of second-degree murder last week in Criminal Court.
Antonio Bledsoe, 23, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading no
contest to the facilitation of first-degree murder.

Murder charges are still pending against a third man, Anthony Collier, 25.

Cora Stevenson said prosecutors told her last year that they had tied her
son to drugs, but she never believed them. She said she was working with
the district attorney's office to clear her son's name, but prosecutors
became upset when she did not show up for sentencing hearings for Keith
Stevenson's killers.

Cora Stevenson said she does not believe the men who pleaded no contest to
the shooting were, in fact, the culprits.

She and her daughter believe that both men pleaded no contest because they
were afraid that had they gone to trial they might have received tougher
prison sentences.

She said she was shocked to open the newspaper yesterday morning and
discover that the court documents had been made public.

"I've been working for a year to get this straightened out," Stevenson said
yesterday. "I never expected this to appear in the newspaper until it got
straightened out."

Stevenson said she is convinced her son was at Battle's home playing
Nintendo with Battle's little brother.

She said she heard the shots ring out that night, but did not know until
later that her son had been shot.

Stevenson said she asked investigators to conduct an inquiry to prove that
the crime scene was tampered with and that someone planted the drugs on her
son's body, but the inquiry never came.

The woman said that had the case gone to trial, a good defense attorney
might have been able to counter some of the police findings, or a judge
might have thrown out some questionable evidence.

"I'll say this about Keith, he had some faults, but Keith didn't have no
evil in him," Stevenson said. "The truth will come out. We might not ever
get the murderer, but I want to get the truth out."

Mother and daughter said they feel traumatized all over again by the recent
accounts of the shooting. Both women say that even if Keith Stevenson were
involved in criminal activity, he was still a victim.

"Victims don't have any rights," Vickie Stevenson said. "He's gone, and
obviously he can't defend himself.

Staff writer Sheila Burke contributed to this report.