Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994 TAG: 9411040113
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GALAX LENGTH: Medium
If Betty Easter had not forced her way into her daughter's blacked-out mobile home about 1:30 a.m. Monday, Rebecca Easter Gammon probably would have been dead along with her husband before anyone knew they had been shot.
As it is, Gammon still may be paralyzed by a bullet lodged near her spine, one of four wounds that put her in intensive care at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C. Doctors have not been able to remove that bullet.
Two half-brothers, Gary Gammon's sons by two earlier marriages, have been charged with capital murder in his death and attempted capital murder in the wounding of his wife.
William S. ``Willie'' Gammon, 20, and Chris Gammon, 16, also are charged with robbery and using firearms in a felony. The older brother is being held under $1million bond in the Carroll County Jail at Hillsville, and the younger under $100,000 bond at the juvenile detention center in Christiansburg.
They were arrested Monday morning after a police chase through Patrick and Henry counties which ended when they ran off U.S. 220. Willie Gammon is charged in Henry County with reckless driving and failing to stop for police.
No preliminary hearing date has been set. Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Goad said a hearing might be months away because the prosecution wants to wait until Rebecca Gammon can testify.
The Gammons' mobile home is in the same area on the outskirts of Galax off Bedsaul Road as the home of Rebecca Gammon's parents, Darrell and Betty Easter, and that of her brother, Gary Easter.
Gary Easter heard what sounded like an argument at the Gammons' shortly after midnight Sunday, but he could not make out what was being said. He then heard four to six shots, he said.
He armed himself before going out, but the Gammon residence was dark and quiet. He continued watching from across a dirt road. He thought he saw two figures move at least twice between the home and Rebecca Gammon's car, then get in the car and leave.
Gary Easter "came up here and woke us up,'' Darrell Easter said. Betty Easter "jumped in the truck and went down there. By the time I went down there, the law was down there, and I couldn't get in.''
Betty Easter had gone to the door of the mobile home but couldn't get the door open. ``It was stuck, if it wasn't locked,'' she said. ``I knocked it open.''
She tried turning on the lights, but nothing happened. It was discovered later that a fuse was loose or had been pulled, which would have kept a motion-sensor light from coming on outside.
Betty Easter called 911. Gary Gammon, 42, was already dead from several wounds to the abdomen. Rebecca Easter, 28, was alive but in all likelihood would have died if the Pipers Gap Rescue Squad had not gotten her to a hospital quickly.
Rebecca Easter was able to give a brief statement. According to a copy of a search warrant left inside her car - which was brought back from Henry County by her father - she identified Willie and Chris Gammon as those who had shot her and her husband.
The warrant also showed that a .25-caliber pistol was recovered from the car, along with a rifle case, a jar full of silver coins, another full of pennies, a duffle bag, a pocketbook, an AM-FM radio, a Swiss army knife, a pillow case containing CDs, and 15 rounds of ammunition. The Henry County Sheriff's Office identified an assault rifle as one of the weapons used in the shootings.
Darrell Easter said Chris Gammon had moved into the Gammons' home about a year ago, and Willie Gammon had moved in three or four months ago. Darrell Easter understood that Gary and Rebecca Gammon had gone to Bassett or Martinsville during the day Sunday, but he had no idea what might have happened between them and Gary Gammon's sons when they returned.
Gary Gammon's funeral was held Thursday in Bassett.
by CNB