Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 7, 1991 TAG: 9102070228
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
By accepting the plea agreement, Myers will avoid the death penalty, which could have been imposed if he had been convicted of capital murder. He will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years in prison.
His court-appointed attorney, Brian T. Scheid of Narrows, called the agreement a victory for Myers. "We always viewed saving his life as being a tremendous victory."
Commonwealth's Attorney James Hartley, however, said the guilty pleas were also a victory for the prosecution. "I don't think it is likely that he will ever be paroled."
"And I don't know if a jury would have sentenced him to death. By pleading this out, we'll get the maximum amount of penalty without death," Hartley said.
Myers, 28, who lived in the Hollybrook section of Bland County, is charged with two counts of capital murder, one count of arson and two counts of robbery. He is expected to plead guilty to all five charges and receive life sentences for each, pending approval by Circuit Judge A. Dow Owens.
Myers is charged with killing Dale Russell Lambert, 30, also of the Hollybrook section of Bland County, in May 1989 while the two men were out drinking in a remote section of the Jefferson National Forest in Giles County.
Myers is accused of shooting Lambert in the head with a shotgun, stealing his car keys and wallet and then burning his body on some old tires.
Myers is also accused of shooting Ralph Randall Lester, 32, of the White Gate section of Giles County that same day at Lester's home and then burning the house down with Lester's body inside.
The three men, who apparently had been friends, worked together at Herbert's Sawmill in Bland County, according to earlier court testimony.
Myers was arrested several days later in London, Ky. He was driving a vehicle registered to Lambert's wife and was carrying Lambert's keys and wallet. He also was carrying a handgun, two rifles and two shotguns. The pistol belonged to Lester.
Myers admitted the killings in statements he made to police in Kentucky and Giles County Investigator William Stables, according to earlier court hearings.
Stables said Myers told him that Lambert owed him money and that "he had had enough and he was tired of being jerked around by these people and being lied to."
Myers said his own "attitude" had worsened since his divorce a year before the killings, according to a report prepared by the University of Virginia Forensic Psychiatry Clinic to determine whether Myers was competent to stand trial.
The defendant noticed that "he just didn't care" about anything and was "not putting up with as much as I used to," according to the report.
"It would be just anything . . . some little thing they might do would just p--- me off. I might holler at them, or leave . . . family, friends, even my own mother," Myers said in the report.
"Before, I used to be opinionated about it and speak up, get into a little debate or discussion with someone. Now, it's either the hell with it, or raise hell about it. I can't be rational about it," he said.
In the report, Myers also talked about his years of drug abuse and problems he had with aggressive outbursts.
by CNB