KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WWMT/CNN/RNN) - A Michigan man serving a life sentence for his wife’s murder admitted his guilt after eight years and led police to the place he buried her body in exchange for certain privileges in prison.
Officers escorted 37-year-old Doug Stewart, who was convicted of killing his wife Venus Stewart in 2011, out of the Saginaw Correctional Facility Monday to a wooded area in southern Kalamazoo County, MI.
There, police found what they believe to be Venus Stewart’s remains in a shallow grave.
In exchange for leading officers to the burial site, Doug Stewart, a U.S. military veteran, will be allowed to participate in a program to train dogs as well as allowed to teach a class at the prison, according to MLive.com.
Stewart and his fellow inmates in the veterans unit will also be provided with three Xbox consoles, which they can play for 30 minutes at a time. The playable games will be sports games, MLive reports, and the Xbox consoles will not be connected to the Internet.
Other privileges Stewart asked for were denied, including supervised release for his parents’ funeral in the future, according to the Detroit Free Press.
For years, Stewart maintained he was innocent of the crime, but he now admits to killing his wife and disposing of her body. He says he feels remorse.
“You remember everything. I remember the smells, everything," he said of killing his wife. "I think about it every single second.”
Pressure from family members, including the couple’s two daughters, encouraged Stewart to confess, police say.
Stewart says the couple was having marital issues before the murder. He says he got mad when his wife left him and moved in with her parents after accusing him of molesting their daughters.
“It was my fault. I am going to be in prison for the rest of my life,” he said. "I switched off reason and looked for solutions, and I chose the worst solution.”
Stewart says he killed and buried his wife on April 26, 2010, which was the day she disappeared while checking the mail.
Copyright 2018 WWMT via CNN. All rights reserved. Raycom News Network contributed to this report.
