WARWICK — Testimony yesterday for the first time mentioned James Richardson, the man accused of killing Margaret Duffy-Stephenson, as witnesses took the stand for the second day in Kent County Superior Court.

Duffy-Stephenson, 37, was found fatally stabbed in her Blackmore Street home on Nov. 18, 2005. She had worked as a teacher’s aide for special-needs students at Archie R. Cole Junior High School, in East Greenwich.

James O. Stephenson III, her husband, continued testifying yesterday, detailing the family’s relationship with Richardson. Throughout the day, Richardson, dressed in a blue blazer and a slate grey shirt, sat quietly between his lawyers.

According to his testimony, Stephenson hired Richardson in 2000 through a Cranston-based temporarily-employment company, Labor Ready, to work at Stephenson’s company, Picture Perfect Landscaping. Richardson worked for the company, full- or part- time, until 2005, Stephenson said. But beyond his work for the company, Richardson also performed odd jobs for the Stephensons — including tending to their Blackmore Street lawn and painting rooms in the house. Over time, Stephenson said, Richardson developed a personal relationship with the family.

“We treated him like he was a part of our family,” Stephenson testified.

Richardson would often be asked to watch the Stephensons’ house when they went on vacation, Stephenson testified, but he was unable to do so in November 2005, when the family traveled to Florida for a relative’s wedding. That’s because Richardson planned to be in the Philippines at the time visiting his wife, whom he’d married that summer, Stephenson said.

So, the family instead arranged to have Christianne Sbrega, an employee at their son’s preschool, watch the house. Sbrega testified that she stayed at the Stephenson home from Thursday through Sunday taking care of the family’s pets. Richardson, who Stephenson earlier testified was hired to perform some odd jobs around the house while the family was away, did yard work and some maintenance work on Saturday and Sunday, Sbrega said.

Duffy-Stephenson returned to the family’s Warwick home on Nov. 13, while the rest of the family remained in Florida. As the police searched the house after the slaying was discovered, they found that Stephenson’s home office had been ransacked.

Stephenson said the safe in his home office contained personal documents and $10,640 in cash to pay bills. The money was gone. Stephenson testified that Richardson knew where the safe was, but that he knew only his wife and mother knew where the keys to the safe were located.

“My house became a crime scene for about 10 days after we got home,” Stephenson testified. “When I got access to the house, the office was tossed.”

tbuford@projo.com