Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 10, 1993 TAG: 9304100132
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
LAWYERS FOR TECH STUDENT'S KILLER SEEKING NEW TRIAL
Lawyers for John David Lafon have filed a brief with the state Court of Appeals asking that Lafon's 1991 murder conviction for the death of Meredith Mergler be overturned and that he be granted a new trial.Douglas Brinckman and Ray Hartley, Montgomery County lawyers, also have asked that an abduction conviction be overturned and dismissed for lack of evidence.
The state attorney general's office now may respond in writing to defense attorneys' arguments in Lafon's 21-page appeal. The Court of Appeals then will hear oral arguments before deciding whether Lafon should get a new trial.
Lafon, 33, a construction worker from Pembroke in Giles County, was convicted in October 1991 of abducting and murdering Mergler, who was a Virginia Tech student. He was sentenced to life in prison on the murder charge and 12 years on the abduction and use-of-a-firearm charges.
Mergler was 19 when she disappeared in 1987.
Fourteen months later - in October 1988 - her body was found in a cistern near the Giles County community of Eggleston. She had been shot in the face and head.
Lafon has been serving his sentence at Powhatan Correctional Center.
He has denied repeatedly that he had anything to do with Mergler's death.
The appeals court had granted a writ of error in December, Lafon to hear the appeal on four of five issues Lafon had presented:
Whether Giles County Circuit Judge Dow Owens erred in admitting testimony about a prior alleged act of misconduct that occurred more than a year before Mergler disappeared.
Two prosecution witnesses testified that Lafon and a group of men had driven to Virginia Tech in search of a woman.
The witness said the men talked about picking up a woman that night.
Lafon is alleged to have said, "If we got a girl, we'd have to kill her 'cause she'd recognize us."
"The testimony of Doug Jones and [Jerry] Martin . . . does not show a crime was committed or attempted; at most, the evidence could be viewed as suggesting Lafon had intended to abduct the jogger in 1986 but changed his mind . . . but should not be linked to an intent to abduct and kill Mergler," according to the appeal.
Whether hearsay testimony given by a prosecution witness - which included a legal conclusion as to Lafon's guilt - deprived Lafon of a fair trial.
The appeal states that Jones was permitted to testify his "personal belief that Lafon was guilty," which "prejudicially affected the jury's decision."
Whether the court wrongly admitted statements made by Lafon that were secretly tape recorded.
Lafon's attorneys had told authorities not to question him without their presence, but Jones taped several conversations with Lafon without his knowledge, the appeal states.
Whether sufficient evidence was presented to support the jury's verdict that Lafon abducted Mergler.
There was no evidence to show how Mergler got from where she was last seen to where her body was found, according to the appeal.
The Court of Appeals refused to hear an appeal of a fifth issue. The court found no error in a substitute attorney's having been appointed as prosecutor after Giles County Commonwealth's Attorney James Hartley disqualified himself because one of his law partners previously had represented Lafon in a civil matter.
Donald Caldwell, Roanoke's commonwealth's attorney, prosecuted the case.