The ex-husband of former US First Lady Jill Biden has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder following the death of his current wife in their Delaware home in December.
William Stevenson, 77, is in custody after being charged over the death of his wife, 64-year-old Linda Stevenson. He is being held at the Howard Young Correctional Institution after failing to post $500,000 cash bail, according to New Castle County Police.
The arrest follows a weeks-long investigation after police responded to a reported domestic dispute on December 28 at a residence in the Wilmington area. Officers found a woman unresponsive in the living room. She later died despite attempts by police to resuscitate her. Authorities have not released further details about the cause of death.
Stevenson faces a possible life sentence without parole if convicted. Delaware abolished the death penalty in 2024, making life imprisonment the maximum penalty for first-degree murder.
Stevenson was married to Jill Biden from February 1970, when she was 18 and he was 23, until their divorce in 1975. Later that year she met Joe Biden, and the pair married in 1977. The Biden post-presidential office has not commented on Stevenson’s arrest or the charges.