Arizonan pleads guilty in family sex case

KINGMAN, Ariz. - A Wikieup man who encouraged his son to celebrate his 12th birthday by having sex with his older sister and their mother is going to the Arizona Department of Corrections for several decades.

Bernard Stewart, 45, who lived outside the small town on U.S. Highway 93 about 32 miles southeast of Kingman, pleaded guilty Tuesday to each of 17 charges in a grand jury indictment.

Stewart did not explain why he was giving up his right to trial and rejecting a more lenient plea offer. Defense attorney Alex Bolobonoff, however, noted in a motion filed with the court that Stewart is relying upon instruction from God for his legal decision-making.

Mohave County Superior Court Judge Derek Carlisle warned Stewart that his guilty pleas would dictate a prison term ranging from 72 to 251 years. Stewart told the court his primary concern was whether he would continue receiving medications in prison that he has been getting while housed in the Mohave County jail in Kingman.

Stewart said he needs the medications to treat his bipolar disorder and manic depression. He was treated at a state mental health facility for about 10 months before he was declared competent and recently returned to Kingman to be prosecuted.

Stewart pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual conduct with a minor and other counts involving sexual assault, incest, child abuse, public sexual indecency and luring a minor.

Prosecutor Megan McCoy said Stewart's son was 11 to 12 years old and his daughter was 14 to 18 when he subjected them to a wide variety of familial sexual activity with each other and with their parents between 2006 and 2010.

She said Stewart did not personally sexually offend his son but made certain that sexual activity occurred in any other possible pairing of the four-member family.

The prosecutor said that Stewart preached that his daughter would also be his wife and that his son should enjoy his mother as his own wife.

Investigators believe that loyalty under the bizarre family dynamic crumbled under the weight of fierce hunger. McCoy said they were struggling to survive by eating birdseed and rabbits when the children and their mother fled to safety while Stewart was out hunting in February 2011.

The daughter and son are under the care of their mother.

McCoy said the mother was not being charged.

"Though she may have been unwillingly involved in the abuse as the defendant's behavior escalated, she overcame her situation when she took her children to safety," McCoy said. "She stopped the abuse, and she came forward to law enforcement. Without her actions, the defendant's crimes would not have come to light and the defendant would not have faced any consequences for his horrific abuse."

Stewart will be sentenced Dec. 20.