LAWYERS ARGUE FOR RETRIAL FOR EPPERLY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993                   TAG: 9302040118
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
LAWYERS ARGUE FOR RETRIAL FOR EPPERLY
Attorneys for Stephen Epperly said Wednesday that a jury lacked the necessary evidence to convict Epperly of first-degree murder of a Radford University student whose body never has been found.
Epperly, 40, of Radford was sentenced to life in prison in 1980 for the slaying of Gina Renee Hall, who was 18 when she disappeared. He is at Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Buchanan County.
Epperly is the only person in Virginia convicted of first-degree murder without a confession, an eyewitness or a body, attorneys said.
Edward Hogshire told a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that prosecutors "need to show evidence of reflection and meditation prior to the criminal act to get the first-degree murder conviction. The jury can't base it on speculation."
Prosecutors contend Epperly took the woman from a nightspot to a friend's home at Claytor Lake, killed her when she refused his sexual advances and concealed her body in the belief he couldn't be prosecuted.
Though there were no witnesses to the slaying, "the courts take the conjuring up of what happened to fantasize about sexual assault to explain what happened," Hogshire said in arguing that Epperly's conviction should be overturned.
Premeditation is the only difference between first-degree murder, which carries a possible life sentence, and second-degree murder, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years. Robert Anderson, an assistant state attorney general, said defense attorneys used premeditation and intent interchangeably in previous trials.
"We've asked the court to reject the argument that a cunning murderer can't be convicted of first-degree murder unless he announces his intention before or his remorse afterward."
The prosecution's case rested largely on splatters of blood found throughout the home and a tracking dog that trailed Epperly's scent from Hall's abandoned car to Epperly's front door.
The court did not indicate when it would rule in the case.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB