ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 4, 1996 TAG: 9605060055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Harry Stafford Sr. looked across the courtroom at his daughter's killer and forgave him.
And for the briefest of moments as Scotty Wayne Overby left the witness stand, he turned to look at Sheila Ann Stafford's family and apologize to them.
Friday was the conclusion to weeklong proceedings in Montgomery County Circuit Court that boil down to whether Overby, 28, should be given the death penalty or life in prison.
Overby was found guilty Thursday of capital murder, rape and sexual penetration by object. He had earlier pleaded guilty to defiling a corpse.
Sheila Stafford, 27, was found dead Aug. 13 in a Shawsville trailer where Overby was staying. She had been strangled and stabbed, her breasts and nostrils mutilated. She had been sexually assaulted, an obscenity and other comments were written on her body and she had been urinated upon.
Stafford had left Overby in June in order to force him to get treatment for his alcoholism. But she visited him several times and was open to a reconciliation, according to testimony.
Overby, who had been in and out of treatment centers and hospitals during the separation, told investigators he flew into a rage after she told him she had been seeing another man and might be pregnant.
Overby, who had sat with his head bowed chin-to-chest throughout the trial, spoke only briefly on the stand, expressing remorse.
Missing throughout the trial was an explanation for the mutilation of her body.
"I can't explain why. I just snapped. I love Sheila more than anything," he said through tears.
"I miss Sheila bad and I want to tell y'all I'm sorry," Overby said. "I don't know why. I don't know why. ... I wish to God I could bring her back."
Harry Stafford Sr. said he realized while sitting in church one night that he had to forgive his son-in-law.
Like other witnesses, Stafford referred to Overby's efforts to get help for his depression, alcoholism and suicidal thoughts in the weeks leading up to Stafford's death.
Overby was released from Lewis Gale Psychiatric Center in mid-July after his insurance ran out, according to testimony. One of his doctors called Stafford to warn her that Overby had thoughts of killing her.
Overby continued to attend outpatient therapy. A week later, after a suicide attempt, mental health workers in Montgomery County said he didn't meet criteria for commitment.
Stafford told Overby he was sorry for him and his family.
"But I still see her. She comes to me in my sleep" and talks with him. "She came to me in a new body like a child," Stafford said.
Brothers Cecil and Harry Stafford Jr. were less forgiving.
"I've never seen a body so defiled by a person who claimed to love them," Cecil Stafford said. "I hope the Lord has more mercy on you than you did on my sister."
Harry Stafford Jr. wore a photo button of his sister throughout the trial. He said he knew Sheila and Scotty truly loved each other.
But it's hard to reconcile that love with the last image of his sister that he has in his mind from viewing her body at the morgue.
``She had a terror look on her face - just `please, please' and I could just see it,'' he said, raising his hands as he assumed Sheila did as she fought for her life.
"My sister didn't deserve that."
Throughout the trial, the families of Overby and Stafford sat on opposite sides of the courtroom. Tuesday's awkward and tentative moves to reach out to one another grew in frequency and compassion as the trial wore on. During frequent recesses Friday, Stafford's relatives huddled with Overby's family, talking brother to brother or father to grandfather.
Peggy Frank, assistant commonwealth's attorney, and Jimmy Turk, one of Overby's attorneys, broke into tears during closing arguments.
While Overby may be sorry, his crimes meet the criteria for considering the death penalty: torture, depravity of mind and aggravated battery, Frank said.
Sheila Stafford had clawed at her neck with her fingernails trying to save herself from strangulation. She had time to reflect on her impending death, Frank said.
Turk said Overby "took the life of the person that he loved, adored and worshipped the most in this world. Scotty Overby was walking a razor-thin edge. ... I think he was much more disturbed and much more troubled" than anyone realized, Turk said.
After the trial ended, Overby asked Tammy Stafford to meet with him at the Montgomery County Jail.
"He said that she died a quick death," Stafford said, and expressed amazement that the family could forgive him.
Overby, who repeatedly told investigators in August that he wanted to die, told her he wasn't so sure he still didn't want the death penalty.
But Tammy Stafford thinks it more appropriate that Overby spend the rest of his life in prison, living with what he has done.
Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs delayed sentencing until July 9. It is the first time Grubbs, who has been a circuit judge for two years, has had to decide a death penalty case.
The last person sentenced to death in Montgomery County was Buddy Earl Justus, executed in 1990 for the 1978 slaying of Ida Mae Moses, a nurse who was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she was killed at her Ironto home.
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. (headshot) Shelia Stafford. color. 2. GENEby CNBDALTON/Staff. Scotty Wayne Overby (center) in court Thursday with
lawyers Jimmy Turk (left) and Robbie Jenkins.