Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993 TAG: 9312010178
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Meredith Mergler's body was found in October 1988. The 19-year-old student\ had been shot in the face and head.
Lafon, 33, a construction worker from Pembroke, was convicted of abducting\ and murdering Mergler. He was sentenced to life plus 12 years in prison.
In a 20-page opinion released Tuesday, the court ruled that the jury's\ verdict should be upheld, denying Lafon's attorneys' arguments in four areas\ for a new trial.
The following were issues in the appeal: Whether Giles County Circuit\ Judge Dow Owens erred in admitting testimony about a statement allegedly made\ by Lafon more than a year before Mergler disappeared.
Doug Brinckman, one of two court-appointed lawyers representing Lafon, had\ argued that testimony about remarks attributed to Lafon more than a year\ before Mergler disappeared should not have been admitted.
A witness testified during the trial that Lafon and a group of men drove\ to Virginia Tech. The witness said the men talked about picking up a woman and\ that Lafon said, "If we got a girl, we'd have to kill her 'cause she'd\ recognize us."
But that night, all Lafon did was ask a woman jogger for directions.\ Brinckman said that did not constitute premeditation of the charges Lafon\ eventually faced.
Allegations of prior misconduct are extremely prejudicial to defendants,\ Brinckman told the judges.
But the three-judge appeal panel ruled that "Lafon's prior conduct\ established his intent, motive and premeditation to abduct and murder Mergler."
Whether hearsay testimony given by a prosecution witness - which included a legal conclusion as to Lafon's guilt - deprived Lafon of a fair trial.
Doug Jones, a former best friend of Lafon's, testified at the trial that he believed Lafon was guilty. Brinckman argued that the jury put a lot of faith in what Lafon's close friend had to say.
Jones testified that in early 1988, Lafon told him: "I did it, Douglas, I did it . . . I've put something in a well I can't let anybody find."
Jones said Lafon . . . I've put something in a well I can't let anybody find."
Jones said Lafon told him he had put lime in the well to speed decomposition of the body and keep the smell down. Authorities did find lime in the well, and Lafon worked for a lime company in 1987.
While opinions by lay witnesses are generally inadmissible, the court said there are exceptions and that the trial judge was correct in allowing the testimony.
Whether the court wrongly admitted statements made by Lafon that were secretly tape-recorded, even though defense attorneys had told police they wanted to be present any time Lafon was questioned.
Sometime after Jones told authorities Lafon had confided in him, he was wired to tape a conversation with Lafon and he later also tape-recorded a conversation with Max Jenkins, Lafon's lawyer.
The court ruled that Jones' actions were not a violation of Lafon's right to an attorney.
"Jones was not a jail-house informant, but a private citizen assisting police," the court states in its ruling, noting that Lafon had approached Jones and "unburdened himself long before Jones became a police operative."
Whether sufficient evidence was presented to support the jury's verdict that Lafon abducted Mergler.
There is no evidence of how Mergler got to Giles County, and Brinckman argued there was the possibility she went there willingly after leaving a friend at a Blacksburg night spot about midnight, Brinckman argued.
The Court of Appeals ruled there was enough circumstantial evidence presented at trial to justify the abduction conviction.
Richard B. Smith, assistant attorney general, told the three-judge panel in September that Mergler didn't go to Giles County voluntarily. She was planning a trip home the next day and had left her clothes, glasses and a check for a large amount of money at her apartment.
"While it is possible to envision a myriad of scenarios in which Mergler voluntarily went to Giles County, or was abducted by someone other than Lafon, there is simply no evidence in the record to support such speculation," the court ruled.
Brinckman said the next step is to take the case to the Virginia Supreme Court.
"I would imagine that Mr. Lafon would wish to do that," he said.
Jenkins, who represented Lafon at trial, said he was surprised that the abduction charge stood on appeal.
"I am scratching my head on that one," Jenkins said. "There's absolutely no proof that he abducted that girl from Montgomery County."
Jenkins also said he couldn't see how the court decided Lafon's prior conduct was admissible at the trial.
"But, of course, after Epperly, nothing surprises me," he said.
Jenkins' reference was to the conviction of Stephen Epperly for the 1980 death of a Radford University student, whose body was never found. Epperly failed at several attempts for a new trial.
After his conviction, Lafon was identified as a prime suspect in the death of Andrea Walnes, a Virginia Tech student who disappeared July 4, 1991, while tubing at McCoy Falls in Montgomery County. No charges have been filed in that case. The skeletal remains of Walnes, an 18-year-old sophomore, were found in the Jefferson National Forest in Giles County on Nov. 1, 1991.
by CNB