ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
A Carroll County juvenile avoided a capital murder jury trial Monday in the fatal 1994 shooting of his father by pleading no contest to first degree murder instead.
Christopher Lee Gammon, who will turn 18 in August but was 16 at the time of the shooting, also chose not to fight charges of the malicious wounding and armed robbery of his stepmother.
He and his older brother, William Spencer "Willie'' Gammon, 22, each faced 14 felony charges in the death of Gary Gammon, 42, and the wounding of Rebecca Easter Gammon, 30, now in a wheelchair because of her injuries. She and Gary Gammon, a mechanic, were married in 1988.
William Gammon still faces all those charges, including capital murder, and is scheduled for trial in October.
Circuit Judge Duane Mink set Christopher Gammon's sentencing hearing Nov. 7. Possible sentences range from 20 years in prison to three life sentences plus two years for each use of a firearm in the commission of the three major felonies.
Defense attorneys Max Jenkins and Rob Jenkins tried at an earlier hearing to get a confession by Christopher Gammon thrown out, arguing that the teen-ager was upset at the time and not competent to make it. But Mink ruled it admissable. It was not read at Monday's trial because both sides stipulated what the evidence would be, but Mink had reviewed it privately before accepting Christopher Gammon's plea.
A Juvenile Court judge had ruled earlier that Christopher Gammon would be tried as an adult.
Max Jenkins said Christopher Gammon was pleading no contest to the charges not because he thought he was guilty, but because he believed the evidence was sufficient to convict him. In return for his plea, the capital murder charge was amended to first degree murder and several additional robbery charges were not prosecuted.
Jenkins said he would present evidence of mistreatment by the defendant's father at the sentencing hearing, but he declined to provide details.
Christopher and William were Gary Gammon's sons from two previous marriages. They were arrested in Henry County after the discovery of the shootings at the Gammons' mobile home in western Carroll County on a gravel road just outside the city of Galax Oct. 31, 1994.
They were driving a blue Ford Probe owned by Gary and Rebecca Gammon. Authorities spotted it in Patrick County and began what became a 120 mph chase that ended when the car ran off a road in Henry County.
Rebecca Gammon's brother lived near the Gammon home and heard what sounded like shots about 1:30 a.m., but found the home dark. He awakened his parents, who also lived nearby. Betty Easter, Rebecca's mother, forced her way inside and found her daughter still alive despite four bullet wounds. The Pipers Gap Rescue Squad took her to a hospital.
Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Goad said Gary Gammon was hit by several bullets from an SKS semiautomatic rifle and one shot from a .25-caliber pistol; all of Rebecca Gammon's injuries were inflicted with the pistol.
From statements given by both defendants, he said, William Gammon had the rifle and Christopher Gammon had the pistol. But the prosecution is arguing both shootings were part of one plot.
After consultation with Rebecca Gammon and members of her family, Goad said, it was decided that a jury verdict was unlikely to result in more-stringent penalty possibilities. "It's next to impossible for a juvenile to get the death penalty in Virginia," Goad said. "We knew that from the beginning."
Even with a jury trial, the judge still would have decided the sentence, he said, because Chris Gammon is a juvenile. This procedure also kept the prosecution from having to lay out its case in detail and perhaps give an advantage to the defense in William Gammon's trial, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB