Dallas man charged in Oak Lawn man’s murder

by David Webb of Dallas Voice

A 32-year-old Dallas man was charged with capital murder on Feb. 7 in connection with the stabbing death of a 69-year-old Oak Lawn resident whose body was found in his second home in Gainesville the same day.

Robert Lester Canaga, 32, who was described as an acquaintance of Stephenson’s, was being held in the Dallas County Jail until his transfer to Cooke County where he will face trial for Stephenson’s murder.

George Stephenson, 69, who lived on Bowser Avenue, was last seen at his home on Feb. 5 at about 7 a.m. before he was reported missing. Gainesville police officers discovered his body at his home in the North Texas city after Dallas police asked them to check on his welfare.

Friends of Stephenson’s alerted Dallas police to his disappearance after he missed several appointments. Stephenson was a retired advertising executive. He also was employed at one time as the director of an East Dallas counseling center for substance abusers.

Stephenson’s disappearance was immediately viewed as suspicious because his dog was left at the house. Friends of Stephenson told police that he was a dependable man, and that he always took his dog with him when he left his house for an extended time.

Stephenson’s car, a black Lexus, was missing.

After Canaga’s arrest police said that someone other than Stephenson was captured on an Oak Lawn bank surveillance video attempting to use the dead man’s ATM card.

Stephenson was an active member of the Oak Lawn Lambda chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, and he was known to devote much of his time to sponsoring people who were attempting to recover from substance abuse problems, according to some of his friends.

Dallas resident Ken Dingler, who said he knew Stephenson from their mutual membership in a local bridge club called Gaymsters, described Stephenson as a “wonderful man.”

“He had a great sense of humor,” Dingler said. “He was always very pleasant and cheerful. He was a super nice guy.”

Dingler said that Stephenson had a boyfriend of at least two years, and that he had never heard of Canaga.

“It’s all very mysterious to me,” Dingler said. “I don’t think that George would have left Dallas without making some sort of arrangements for that dog if he went willingly.”

Gainesville, where Stephenson grew up, is about a two-hour drive from Dallas.

Dingler said the bridge group’s members are in shock about Stephenson’s death because he seemed like such an unlikely person to become the victim of violence at the hands of someone he knew.

“There were e-mails and phone calls going around yesterday before when it was reported he was just missing,” Dingler said. “Later we heard he had been found dead.”

Longtime Dallas resident Mark Carroll, a well-known singer and piano player on the Dallas entertainment scene, said Stephenson was known for his dedication to helping others.

“He was a very fine man,” Carroll said. “He was a real gentleman, and he helped a lot of people. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and I was very fond of him.”

Carroll described Stephenson’s death as a “terrible loss” to the community.