The man charged with gunning down seven elderly patients and a nurse at a Carthage nursing home March 29 claims that he does not remember the bloody rampage.

Robert Kenneth Stewart told an emergency room nurse "he had taken six nerve pills and he does not remember anything else" according to search warrants and other documents that a judge ordered unsealed late Monday.

Two vials of blood drawn March 29 from Stewart are being tested for drugs, according to the warrants.

Authorities say Stewart went into Pinelake Health and Rehabilitation Center on Pinehurst Avenue and began shooting helpless patients, including some in wheelchairs, until Carthage Police Officer Justin Garner stopped him with a single shot.

Stewart is charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of residents Tessie Garner, 75; Lillian Dunn, 89; Jesse Musser, 88; Bessie Hedrick, 78; John Goldston, 78; Margaret Johnson, 89; and Louise De Kler, 98; and a 39-year-old male nurse Jerry Avant.

The day after the shootings, March 30, prosecutors obtained an order from Superior Court Judge William Z. Wood Jr. sealing search warrants and supporting documents "until further orders of the court."

Assistant District Attorney Warren McSweeney had asked Wood to seal those materials. To support the request McSweeney told the judge "certain persons" were cooperating in the investigation "partly conditioned on confidentiality for the present time."

Their cooperation "could be jeopardized" by failure to seal that material, McSweeney said in his motion, according to court documents. He said "sealing all returns of orders and search warrants, including accompanying applications and affidavits, to protect all parties, including the subject of this investigation, to-wit Robert K. Stewart" was necessary and "would be in the best interest of justice, and would afford protection to all parties "

Wood ordered that all search warrant applications, the warrants themselves, and accompanying affidavits and documents be sealed "until further orders of the court." Wood later granted a motion by Stewart's attorneys to let the defense have copies, but then resealed them.

About 5 p.m. Monday, just as Clerk of Court Susan Hicks was closing her office, Wood lifted his previous order. He sent facsimile copies of a new order to Amanda Martin, general counsel for the North Carolina Press Association that had pressed for release of the materials.

Woods cited a statement from the office of District Attorney Maureen Krueger that the state has no objection to an order removing the material from under seal, and written consent by attorneys for the defendant in his ruling to unseal the materials. Martin said this was about as speedy a release as possible, and benefited from the press association pushing for release.

"I am convinced that pushing the issue resulted in faster access than if matters had just run their course, so to speak," Martin said. "As I said last week, 'Who knows when the documents would have been unsealed?'"

According to those documents, Garner arrested Stewart following a hallway shoot-out in which the officer was wounded by a shotgun blast from Stewart as he, at the same time, fired a single bullet that put Stewart on the floor. Stewart was taken to First health Moore Regional under arrest for treatment of a gunshot wound to his upper chest.

Warrants were signed later that day by Senior Resident Superior Court Judge James M. Webb authorizing searches of Stewart's home and a vehicle he had driven to Pinelake.

Sgt. Bryan Monroe and other deputies had earlier made a forcible entry into Stewart's home to check for any additional victims. They observed ammunition "in plain sight on the kitchen table and also on a bed" according to search warrant documents. Monroe conducted a safety sweep after he determined there was no one in the residence, and deputies remained at the scene to prevent anyone from entering.

Detective George Dennis obtained a warrant from Webb to search the house for firearms, ammunition, notes and other evidence in the murder. The subsequent search of Stewart's green-striped white double-wide mobile home at 2530 Glendon-Carthage Road resulted in investigators seizing shotguns, pistols, rifles and ammunition as well as notes and notebooks.

An inventory shows nine weapons were taken, with most of them being heavy-gauge guns. Seized were .50-caliber black powder muzzleloaders, shotguns including a Traditions .50-caliber shotgun with scope, a 12-gauge semiautomatic Remington, a 12-gauge Browning over-and-under, and several pistols.

Another warrant resulted in the search and seizure of a Jeep Cherokee registered to Stewart's estranged wife Wanda Gay Stewart. She had taken refuge with her mother after fleeing from "a violent marriage" to Stewart.

A witness, Darlene Harris, told officers she saw Stewart in the parking lot at Pinelake getting out of a black vehicle, according to one affidavit. She told a deputy she watched Stewart get out of the driver's side, go around to the passenger side, open the passenger door, take out a gun and go into Pinelake.

A .22-caliber rifle was discovered on top of a black 1998 Jeep Cherokee in the Pinelake parking lot. Officers found a number of spent bullet casings on the ground around the car. The Cherokee was found to be registered to Stewart's wife.

The suspect had shot out the windows of a PT Cruiser that his estranged wife had driven to work that morning. The car was later taken to the home of Wanda Stewart's mother. He is also accused of shooting a man in the parking lot who had come to visit a relative at Pinelake.

After Webb issued a search warrant for the Jeep, investigators found mail inside addressed to Stewart, and seized more ammunition.

Stewart is recovering from his wounds at Central Prison in Raleigh where he is detained under a safekeeping order issued by Webb. His next scheduled court appearance is set for April 13, but the Moore County Grand Jury meets that same day and indictments are expected.

Contact John Chappell at 783-5841 or by e-mail at jchappell@thepilot.com.