Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 31, 1990 TAG: 9007310212
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: TAZEWELL LENGTH: Medium
Trial for Samuel Ealy, 27, of Pocahontas, is now scheduled to start Dec. 3 and run for two weeks.
Ealy is charged in the April 16, 1989, shotgun slayings of Robert and Una Mae Davis and the woman's 14-year-old son, Robert Hopewell, at their Pocahontas home.
He was originally charged shortly after the killings, but the first charges were dropped and he was arrested again on new charges a year ago.
Tom Scott and Marty Large, Ealy's defense attorneys, had sought a dismissal Monday from Judge Donald Mullins on grounds of improper police procedures.
"Dismissal of a charge of this type is a drastic measure," Mullins said in announcing that he would defer a decision until he sees how the specifics of the investigation unfold during the trial.
Ealy's second arrest followed a statement to authorities by his half-brother, Brian Burnopp, that he saw Ealy loading a shotgun the night of the slayings and that Ealy later told him about the killings.
But the defense was able to show that Burnopp had made other statements implicating at least four people during six hours of questioning shortly after midnight July 28, 1989, at the Tazewell County sheriff's office.
John Mark Ealy, the defendant's brother, testified that Chuck Ruble, a Sheriff's Department investigator, told him during the questioning that Burnopp's statements were being tape-recorded.
But no tape has been produced and, Scott argued, there is now no way to know what statements Burnopp made that might accuse someone other than Sam Ealy. Because of that, he said, charges against Ealy should be dismissed.
Ruble denied that a recording was made. He said he started to make one and changed his mind. He said John Mark Ealy kept bothering him about taping Burnopp's statement. "I could have said, `Yes, we're getting it' or `Yes, we will do it' . . . I just went along with what he wanted and walked off."
State police Investigator Cecil Wyatt testified that when he got to the sheriff's office he recommended sending Burnopp home because he was intoxicated and because he was a juvenile from whom no statement could be taken without parental consent. Authorities talked to him the next day with his mother's permission.
But Scott maintained that any statements he made at the sheriff's office that might have shown Ealy's innocence should be made available to the defense.
"I think the defendant has presented substantial evidence that a tape-recording was made. That disturbs me," Mullins said. But the judge said he wanted to see and hear other aspects of the investigation at the trial before making a final ruling.
Ruble also drew criticism from the judge for his handling of shoe prints tied to another suspect in the slayings. Of Ruble's failure to preserve the evidence, Mullins said: "You messed up."
Scott told reporters after Monday's hearing that he had furnished the prosecution with the name of a witness who heard another man talk about a companion in his truck having killed three people, about 30 minutes before the bodies were discovered. He did not identify the person except to say it was someone from West Virginia and not Ealy.
"The longer we wait, the better things get for the defense," Scott said. "We're prepared to prove Mr. Ealy didn't do it, even though we don't have to prove anything."
by CNB