Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He broke into the basement of his stepfather's home, hiding out until that afternoon. He appeared drunk and bewildered when he finally emerged.
"He was highly intoxicated when he came walking up to the car," May's stepfather, Stuart "Pete" Kirk III, testified Thursday. "[May] said, 'I've done something bad. I don't know what. I think I killed someone.' ... He grabbed ahold of me and said he can't believe something like that could happen. He started crying and kept saying he couldn't believe something like that could happen."
Since the start of May's bench trial in Roanoke Circuit Court, Public Defender Ray Leven had promised to detail some of the "whys" of his client's case. Thursday he delivered, characterizing May as a troubled, self-destructive teen who exhibited a borderline personality disorder at the age of 14.
For May, life as an adult was not much different. His thirst for alcohol, coupled with his personality disorder, became a violent mix. The night of the murders, it became a lethal one.
May's lawyers will have their final chance this morning to ask Judge Clifford Weckstein to save their client's life. Weckstein might decide May's fate as early as this afternoon. The 27-year-old house painter faces execution or life in prison for a shooting spree that killed five people in an Old Southwest carriage house.
Defense witnesses testified about the hours shortly after the murders - describing May as a confused man who had little recollection that he had just shot and killed three men and two women.
To calm May down, Kirk gave him some Valium and gin, and tried to coax his stepson into turning himself in to police. May made several phone calls, one to his biological father, James May III.
"Robbie said, 'Dad, I love you,''' May's father recounted from the witness stand. ``[May] said, 'I've done something terrible,' to the effect, 'I've killed some people.' I think he said something about doing some harm to himself."
May's father contacted a friend with the state police to find out if his son was telling the truth. Soon afterward, Roanoke police arrested May at his stepfather's Southwest Roanoke house.
"When he walked out the door, he told me he loved me," Kirk said.
When sober, May was only a menace to himself - for instance, as a youngster, he bit his arm until it bled. When drunk, he could be violent to others, according to Dr. Evan Nelson, a clinical psychologist and expert witness for the defense.
With a borderline personality disorder a person doesn't "have the insight that this is how I get into trouble again and again," Nelson said. "Simply they react without having any thought along the way. ... Awareness is always a moment too late."
Defense lawyers used Nelson's testimony to illustrate factors in May's life that they hope will lessen his sentence for murdering Carl Stroop, 42; Dale Arnold, 36; Daniel Mason, 47; Susan Hutchinson, 44; and Cynthia LaPrade, 43.
Two factors Weckstein must look at during his decision is the "vileness" of the crime and the "future danger" of the defendant. Nelson testified Thursday that it is impossible to predict who will be a future danger. But experts can evaluate risk factors.
One of May's prime risk factors in committing violence is alcohol. In a setting such as a prison, where alcohol is prohibited, May is likely to be more violent to himself than others, Nelson said.
Nelson also cited a 15-year study of violence by death-row inmates whose sentences had been commuted to life in prison. Out of 453 individuals, fewer than than 10 percent committed additional violence while behind bars.
Under cross-examination by Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell, Nelson agreed that, despite May's mental disorder and alcoholism, the convicted murderer can distinguish right from wrong, understand and appreciate his actions, and resist an impulse that comes over him.
"We're not contesting that Mr. May has problems," Caldwell said after the proceedings. "But those problems don't justify a mass murder."
Keywords:
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by CNB