ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 30, 1996 TAG: 9604300107
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Scotty Wayne Overby took his estranged wife's life last August, defense lawyers told prospective jurors Monday.
Yet Overby is guilty not of capital murder, they contend, but of having a death wish.
Sheila Ann Stafford, 27, was found lying on the bedroom floor of a Shawsville trailer Aug. 13. Investigators say Overby, also 27, confessed to killing and raping his wife and then mutilating the corpse.
His lawyers say Overby - who has previously attempted suicide - kept changing the details of his confession until he could face a capital murder charge, which can be punishable by death.
Jury selection continues today in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
Prosecutors Peggy Frank and Phil Keith are seeking the death penalty.
Tammy Stafford of Salem has said her sister went to see Overby because he had told her he had quit drinking and wanted to talk about a reconciliation.
Initially, Overby told investigators the couple had consensual sex and that he killed Stafford in the middle of an argument. But later, he said he forced her to have sex and flew into a rage when she cursed him afterward, a deputy testified at an October preliminary hearing
"If you sit on this jury, you are going to find him guilty of some degree of murder or manslaughter," Jimmy Turk, one of Overby's lawyers, told prospective jurors.
But Turk and co-counsel Robbie Jenkins want to convince the jury that Overby is not guilty of capital murder - that he did not rape his wifebefore killing her. His lawyers hope to save him from a death sentence, leaving him to face, at most, life in prison without parole. Turk said Overby will testify.
Investigators said in August that Stafford had been choked with a board, some belts and an alarm clock cord. She was stabbed in the neck and her nostrils, and her breasts were mutilated. Authorities believe she was raped before and after she was killed. A racial obscenity was scribbled on her body with a black magic marker, and she had been urinated on.
Overby pleaded guilty, before jury selection began Monday, to a charge of defiling a corpse. Judge Ray Grubbs will sentence him later.
Narrowing the jury pool proved an exhaustive process Monday. Lawyers spent 30 to 45 minutes interviewing each individually. Turk spent a great deal of time preparing potential jurors for graphic photographs that will show Stafford's injuries. He also dug deeply into their opinions on the death penalty.
By 8:30 p.m. Monday, only six of 12 potential jurors interviewed were found acceptable by both the prosecution and defense. There must be a pool of 23 acceptable jurors from which lawyer can pick 12 jurors and an alternate.
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