By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

WaKEENEY -- Prosecutors continued Monday to try to link David A. Stevenson to his father's death.

But even some of the prosecution's own witnesses provided conflicting testimony when the first-degree murder trial resumed for the week in Trego County District Court.

Stevenson, 61, is charged with the March 13, 2008, murder of his father, Walter A. Stevenson. Defense attorney Paul Oller has continued to suggest the elder Stevenson's death might be little more than an unfortunate farm accident, in which the western Gove County farmer became trapped under the bed of a grain truck.

Prosecutor Steven Karrer, however, has been attempting to show David A. Stevenson is responsible for his father's death, staging the murder as an accident instead.

In testimony Monday, Dr. Victor Nemechek, a family physician in Quinter, told of meetings he had with both Walter Stevenson and his wife, Bonny.

While Nemechek said Walter Stevenson was in "very good" health for an 85-year-old, his wife struggles with Alzheimer's.

In the course of asking Nemechek to perform a memory test on his wife, Walter Stevenson reportedly told the physician about conflicts in the household.

Nemecheck said he was told by Stevenson that his son was generally around when he was using the home phone, allowing for no privacy.

Walter Stevenson and his daughter, Peggy Ricker, had asked that Nemechek test Bonny Stevenson's competency.

"He explained to me that his son was having his wife write checks on his account," Nemechek said of why Walter Stevenson was asking for the competency test. "He felt that she was writing those checks and did not know what they were for -- she didn't understand what she was writing them for."

Nemechek testified he was told Walter Stevenson had transferred a substantial amount of money from a joint checking account to an account that only he could write checks on.

"He did not know how this was going to be perceived by his son, and how he was going to react," Nemechek said he was told.

Ultimately, the physician said, David Stevenson started calling the clinic to get copies of the records involving the meeting with Walter Stevenson. At least twice, Nemechek said, his office was told David Stevenson had power of attorney for his mother, even though he did not.

Nemecheck also testified that when Bonny Stevenson came in for her regular appointment, accompanied by her son, he learned that the drug regimen she had been placed on had been changed.

"He told me he started her on an holistic approach," Nemechek said he was told by David Stevenson.

That change included a reduction in two drugs that had been prescribed, in favor of a "concoction of different juices."

Under cross-examination by Oller, Nemechek said he was aware there was a "conflict between the two sides" -- that of Walter Stevenson and Peggy Ricker and Bonny Stevenson and David Stevenson.

Progress in the case remains slightly behind schedule, and District Judge Ed Bouker told jurors the case was "doing pretty well."

Likely, he said, testimony will be completed and handed to the jury for deliberations by Friday.

"There is a slight possibility that we may go another day," he said, adding he suspects the jury might prefer meeting Saturday rather than going into a new week.

But he said there's nothing certain about the need for extra time.