ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SPARTANBURG, S.C.
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
Earl Conrad Bramblett was the man who religiously walked his three-legged dog "Lucky" around the block in his modest neighborhood. He was the man who friends and acquaintances described as the "good" neighbor - always there with a helping hand or a wave.
He was the man who stopped by Nikki's Speedy-Mart every day, purchasing beef jerky for Lucky and a 12-pack of Milwaukee's Best beer for himself.
"The guy would have done anything for you," said Bryman Suttle, a co-owner of Nikki's who serves up double cheeseburgers, chili dogs and conversation at the grill.
"He was a great fella - one of the nicest people we ever met," he said. "People said he was quiet. But I never noticed that shyness. We talked every day."
But then authorities arrested Bramblett on Tuesday on charges that he murdered a Vinton couple and their two children in 1994. And people began asking, "How could it be true?"
Wednesday, Bramblett, 54, appeared to be asking the same question as he went before a Spartanburg County magistrate for a bond hearing.
"Yes, I don't understand," he said. "Are we talking about one count of murder, two counts, 10 counts? What are we talking about?"
Bramblett faces one count of capital murder, three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and arson. He is accused of killing Teresa Hodges, 37, her husband, Blaine Hodges, 41, and their daughters, Anah, 3, and Winter, 11, in August 1994. Teresa Hodges was strangled and the rest were shot in the head. They were found in their burned-out home.
Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart would not comment Wednesday night on a motive in the killings.
Under South Carolina law, a magistrate cannot set bail for a capital murder charge. As a result, Bramblett's bond hearing was transferred to Spartanburg Circuit Court and is expected to be held Friday. He will be held without bond until then.
Bramblett, a wiry man with white hair, walked into court in chains. He wanted to talk: about why he had left Virginia and what happened when he arrived in South Carolina. Despite the cautioning of Judge Robert Hall, Bramblett rambled on, reiterating some of the claims he made in a 1994 letter to The Roanoke Times. He said he asked a Virginia state trooper if he was going to be charged and was advised by a Roanoke attorney that it would be best for him to leave the area.
When he showed up in Spartanburg, S.C., in October 1994, two months after the Hodges' slayings, he described himself as being at "rock bottom."
"I landed in a mission," he told Hall. "I was almost broke."
Sherman Swofford, owner of Skyvision Signs and Designs, took pity on him. The two connected through a friend and soon Bramblett had a job less than two blocks from his home. Before 8 a.m. each day, he'd walk through his back yard, down a neighbor's gravel driveway and across the street to Skyvision. Once there, he'd work on one of the many safety signs the small business produces.
"He was quite skillfull, extremely articulate," Swofford said. "He could talk about anything. His favorite topics always seemed to be athletics, track and field. ... He was very humble, almost in a pitiful sort of way. I almost felt sorry for him. I paid him every week, even weeks when he didn't produce much, because I felt like he needed it."
Bramblett nurtured a small vegetable garden in his back yard with tomatoes, squash and beans. He lined the window frames of his front porch with his picked tomatoes.
"There couldn't be a friendlier or nicer neighbor anywhere," said Frances Morgan, who lived next door to Bramblett for almost a year.
Bramblett largely confined himself to a two-block area, making it easy for police to watch him. Since Sunday they had kept up surveillance of his wood-frame house in the Whitney community, a working-class neighborhood of subdivisions split by highways and dotted with strip malls.
"It was like a scene from a movie," said Vinton Lt. Bill Brown, who traveled with Vinton Chief R.R. Foutz to Spartanburg.
"We turned the corner, and he walked out the door" of his house, Brown said of the first time they saw Bramblett. "That felt good."
OPTIONAL TRIM
For nearly two years, Vinton police and state police investigators had waited to close in on Bramblett. When the Roanoke County grand jury indicted Bramblett on the murder charges, and the arrest teams were notified, Bramblett was at work. A Spartanburg County sheriff's captain called Swofford to alert him.
"He said, `Where's Earl?''' Swofford recounted Wednesday as he worked at the table where Bramblett kept his tools. "I said, `Well, he's here.' He said, `Just stay cool and talk to me like you're talking about a sign. Some men are going to come in and arrest Earl.' Then all of a sudden they hit the door with their weapons drawn."
Bramblett asked only about the charges against him, Swofford said.
A subsequent search of Bramblett's house, storage shed, car and workplace turned up no significant evidence, Foutz said.
END OPTIONAL TRIM
For the police, Bramblett's arrest was the culmination of a tedious and at times overwhelming investigation.
"There was some degree of pressure to get him, to get him, to get him," Foutz said. "But we needed to get him when we were ready and had a case against him. We had known where he was for some time. ... Talk about a good feeling. When they put the cuffs on him I felt the weight of the world come off my shoulders."
But for Bramblett's Spartanburg friends, those same events were shattering.
"It's like he died," Suttle said. "I mean police talk like it's open and shut. He just didn't seem like the type. But I guess they never do."
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Earl Bramblett walksby CNBtoward a courtroom in Spartanburg, S.C., Wednesday afternoon. ALAN
SPEARMAN/Staff. 2. Next-door neighbors (from left) Joshua Black, 8,
Elaine Terry and Terry's mother, Frances Morgan, recall Bramblett
fondly. color. 3. Bramblett lived in this house at 451 Longview
Drive and walked to work at a sign company nearby. KEYWORDS: ROMUR