UPDATED~DEVELOPING~Ex-Husband Charged With Murder Of Woman Found Dead In Branson Motel:



Stewart Ralph Hopkins (mug shot Tulsa PD)



Authorities in Branson were called to the Country Bunkhouse Motel on Highway 76 about 11:30 this morning (10-28-10) when a maid found an unresponsive woman bleeding from her neck. When cops  arrived on scene they found Stacy Ann Hopkins-Birmingham, 42, of Omaha, Arkansas was dead.

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Police Chief Carroll McCullough says, "Circumstances surrounding the death are suspicious and the department is now seeking a male subject who was seen at that location at approximately 10:30 p.m. last night."

Late Friday afternoon (10-29-10) Stewart Ralph Hopkins, 45, of Stockton, Missouri, was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action for the murder of his ex-wife.  Online court records show that Hopkins' last address was The Ozark Correctional Center prison in Fordland.

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Hopkins was arrested by the fugitive division of the Tulsa Police Department at 11:00 p.m. in connection to Birmingham's murder and has been extradited back to Missouri.

Southwest Missouri Forensics conducted an autopsy Hopkins-Birmingham in Springfield and ruled that the cause of the woman's death was blood loss from a stab wound to the neck.

Stewart Hopkins is being held in the Taney County jail on $500,000 bond.
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UPDATE 03-04-11:

During Hopkins preliminary hearing on March 3rd his attorney argued that Hopkins stabbed Stacy Birmingham AFTER she allegedly stabbed and wounded him....so it wasn't murder.  He tossed that weapon and pulled a folding pocket knife and stabbed her three times.

Court documents say, "Stewart R. Hopkins stated he did this in anger toward (the victim) due to him being left out of his daughter's life."

Attorney Rick Watson says prosecutors have only offered Hopkins one plea deal....life in prison.
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10AF-CR02929 - ST V STEWART R HOPKINS