CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Lawyers for sniper suspect Shawn Lester say newspaper articles have cast him in such a bad light that it is impossible for Lester to get a fair trial in Kanawha County.
Recent news coverage and the original media uproar over the 2003 sniper-style shootings justify Lester's trial being moved to another county, defense attorney George Castelle told Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom on Thursday.
During a hearing to determine whether the trial should be moved, Castelle said Lester's name has been mentioned in newspaper articles 400 times since he was arrested April 1 in connection with the shootings that left three people dead in Kanawha County.
Lester, 36, has since been indicted on three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Gary Carrier Jr., Jeanie Patton and Okey Meadows Jr.
Police now believe the killings were in retaliation for stolen drugs.
Castelle said pretrial publicity makes it impossible to pick an unbiased jury to try Lester in Kanawha County. He also said a "pervasive atmosphere of fear" surrounding the 2003 killings also makes seating a jury unlikely.
All three victims were killed at Kanawha County convenience stores using a .22 Magnum rifle with a telescopic sight. At the time, newspaper accounts reported county residents cowering behind their cars as they pumped gas, and local officials telling people to pump gas only during the day and not to go out at night, Castelle said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Lawyers for sniper suspect Shawn Lester say newspaper articles have cast him in such a bad light that it is impossible for Lester to get a fair trial in Kanawha County.
Recent news coverage and the original media uproar over the 2003 sniper-style shootings justify Lester's trial being moved to another county, defense attorney George Castelle told Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom on Thursday.
During a hearing to determine whether the trial should be moved, Castelle said Lester's name has been mentioned in newspaper articles 400 times since he was arrested April 1 in connection with the shootings that left three people dead in Kanawha County.
Lester, 36, has since been indicted on three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Gary Carrier Jr., Jeanie Patton and Okey Meadows Jr.
Police now believe the killings were in retaliation for stolen drugs.
Castelle said pretrial publicity makes it impossible to pick an unbiased jury to try Lester in Kanawha County. He also said a "pervasive atmosphere of fear" surrounding the 2003 killings also makes seating a jury unlikely.
All three victims were killed at Kanawha County convenience stores using a .22 Magnum rifle with a telescopic sight. At the time, newspaper accounts reported county residents cowering behind their cars as they pumped gas, and local officials telling people to pump gas only during the day and not to go out at night, Castelle said.
Castelle called Guy Vitaglione, a psychology professor at the West Virginia University Institute of Technology, as an expert witness on the effects of pretrial publicity on potential jurors. Although Bloom would not qualify Vitaglione as an expert on the subject, he allowed his testimony.
"There are many studies that have looked at jurors," Vitaglione said. He said there was a "clear consensus" that negative pretrial publicity can affect potential jurors' attitudes about a suspect's guilt or innocence.
Vitaglione also said research suggests the effects of pretrial publicity decrease the farther jurors are from the site of a crime, and the further in the past the crime occurred.
Under further questioning by Bloom and cross-examination by assistant prosecutor Dan Morris, Vitaglione conceded he had not specifically studied publicity in the sniper case or talked to local residents about how that publicity might have affected their opinions.
Bloom promised to rule quickly on Castelle's motion to either move the trial to another county, or bring a jury in from outside Kanawha County. Lester's trial is scheduled to begin May 29.
Reach Rusty Marks at rustyma...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1215.
