Jill Biden's ex-husband pleads not guilty to murder charge

Jill Biden's first husband pleaded not guilty to charges that he killed his current wife. William Stevenson, 77, entered his plea as he appeared remotely via camera for a hearing in court in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday. A state grand jury charged Stevenson earlier this month with murdering his wife Linda Stevenson, 64. The former first lady, who since 1977 has been married to former President Joe Biden , had a five-year first marriage to William from 1970 to 1975. They first met when Jill was still in college.

Linda Stevenson was found unresponsive at the home she shared with her husband in Wilmington after police responded to a 'domestic dispute' report late December 28, 2025. She was declared dead on December 29 after first responders administered life-saving measures. The specific cause of her death is not yet known. William was arrested on February 2 and was charged with his wife's murder the next day.

He was unable to post $2 million bail and has remained in custody since his arrest. His next court hearing is set for March 16. He is being represented by a public defender. Jill has not publicly weighed in on her ex-husband's alleged crime, and a spokesperson has declined to comment on the charges. Linda's cause of death has still not been released, but her obituary does not mention her husband despite listing her other survivors – her daughter, Christina Vettori, and grandchild.

Stevenson married then-Jill Jacobs in 1970 while she was an 18-year-old college student at the University of Delaware. He was a 23-year-old businessman at the time. The pair divorced in 1975 and two years later she married then-New Castle County Councilman Joe, the future president. Stevenson later claimed that Jill had cheated on him and that he kicked her out of the house when he learned of the affair with Biden. They both worked on Biden's campaign. William, who went by Bill, founded the Stone Balloon, a popular music venue in Newark, Delaware, in the early 1970s.

Linda Stevenson ran a bookkeeping business. She was described in her obituary as a family-oriented mother and grandmother. Representatives for Jill told Inside Edition in 2020 that the affair claims he repeated to the Daily Mail were 'fictitious' to 'sell and promote a book' that Bill was preparing to release. 'The relationship of Joe and Jill Biden is well documented,' the spokesman said. 'Jill Biden separated from her first husband irreconcilably in the fall of 1974 and moved out of their marital home. Joe and Jill Biden had their first date in March of 1975, and they married in June of 1977.'

In her 2019 memoir, When the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself, Jill admitted she first thought she and Stevenson were 'destined for each other.' 'Looking back, it may seem like a mistake of youth,' she scathingly wrote about the man she indirectly referred to as 'charming and entrepreneurial' in the book. The Stevensons and Bidens shared Wilmington as their hometown throughout their lives.