The long-ago first husband of former first lady Jill Biden has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder after the death of his wife.
Bill Stevenson, 77, entered the plea Tuesday during a court hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, appearing via remote video. His next court appearance is scheduled for March 16.
Stevenson was charged after his wife, Linda Stevenson, 64, was found unresponsive when police responded to a reported “domestic dispute” at the couple’s home in New Castle County around 11:15 p.m. on Dec. 28, 2025.
He is being held at the Howard Young Correctional Institution after failing to post a $500,000 cash bail.
Authorities have not publicly disclosed Linda’s cause of death. Life-saving measures were attempted, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Audio from police dispatch referenced “cardiac arrest,” according to a contemporaneous report by TMZ.
Her obituary stated that she “passed away unexpectedly” and did not mention her husband. The couple had been married for nearly 40 years.
Jill Biden, 74, was married to Stevenson for five years. They separated in 1974 and divorced in 1975. She married then-Senator Joe Biden in 1977.
In interviews over the years, Stevenson has publicly discussed the end of his first marriage, alleging that Jill had grown close to Joe Biden toward the end of their relationship.
In a 2020 interview with the Daily Mail, Stevenson recounted driving from Delaware to New Jersey in 1974 to pay Bruce Springsteen ahead of a performance at The Stone Balloon, a student bar he founded at the University of Delaware. He said Jill declined to join him, telling him she needed to look after Joe’s children, Beau and Hunter.
He also told the outlet that his divorce led him to meet Linda, whom he described as “the greatest thing in my life.”
In later years, Stevenson said he voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, when Joe Biden served as vice president, but he grew critical of Biden. In 2023, he said he supported President Donald Trump and criticized the Biden family in connection with criminal investigations involving Trump at the time.
Before Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, Stevenson publicly questioned Jill Biden’s support for her husband’s campaign, saying he did not understand why she was “so adamant about defending him and keeping him in the race.”
