ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996 TAG: 9605010057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
MEMO: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
Scotty Wayne Overby has put his life in a judge's hands rather than gamble with a jury.
Overby, charged with capital murder last August after he killed his estranged wife, entered no-contest pleas Tuesday morning in Montgomery County Circuit Court. The move came after an exhaustive Monday of questioning potential jury members.
Sheila Ann Stafford, 27, was found Aug. 13 after Overby told his Shawsville neighbors he had killed her and asked them to call the Sheriff's Office.
Authorities said she had been choked to death, her nose and breasts had been mutilated, and she had been raped and sexually assaulted. A racial obscenity had been written on her body and she had been urinated on.
Defense lawyer Jimmy Turk on Monday gave potential jurors a graphic description of murder-scene photographs.
"Scotty sat through 12 hours of grueling descriptions of bad, terrible memories," Turk said, "and he simply couldn't cope with it any longer."
Turk and co-counsel Robbie Jenkins were prepared to argue to a jury that Overby was guilty of taking his wife's life, but it wasn't capital murder. Instead, they said, Overby reacted in a rage when his wife told him she was seeing another man and might be pregnant. After killing Stafford, Overby was so distraught he embellished details until he thought he had given authorities enough to charge him with capital murder, the lawyers said.
But Overby called off the jury trial late Monday evening, deciding to plead no contest to capital murder, object penetration and rape. Overby already had pleaded guilty to a charge of defiling a corpse.
"He said that he honestly did not feel that it was fair to her family in particular and to his family to put them through the agony of listening to all this," Turk said.
Instead, the evidence will be heard this week by Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs, who will have to decide whether Overby should serve life in prison or be put to death.
Turk said Overby will testify and describe how the murder unfolded. Overby wants Grubbs and the families "to know how sorry he is for what he did and how troubling this is.''
In opening statements Tuesday afternoon, Jenkins said Overby was an alcoholic who became suicidal when his wife left him in June 1995.
But Peggy Frank, assistant commonwealth's attorney, presented a different scenario.
"Scotty was depressed over their separation and had made threats against Sheila's life," Frank said.
Tammy Stafford discounted Overby's contention that her sister was dating another man. Her sister was living with her at the time and wanted to save the marriage, she said.
Even though she had a protective order against Overby, Stafford took phone calls from her husband and saw him on a few occasions. But she had decided against a reconciliation when he asked her to visit him on Aug. 12, Frank said.
Overby hung his head or held his temples with his fingers throughout much of the proceedings Tuesday.
The commonwealth's attorney's office had refused to plea-bargain the case.
"The only offer we could make was the death penalty. We would not agree to any plea less than the death penalty," Frank said.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Scotty Wayne Overby\Enters no-contestby CNBpleas. color.