Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
A Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge Tuesday ordered William Spencer Gammon, 20, and Chris Gammon, 16, held for the Carroll County grand jury after separate preliminary hearings.
The brothers are charged with capital murder in the slaying of Gary Gammon, 42, as he entered his mobile home near Galax shortly after midnight Oct. 31; attempted murder in the shooting of their stepmother, Rebecca Easter Gammon, 28, who was partly paralyzed by one of the shots that hit her; robbery of some of the couple's belongings; and use of firearms in the commission of a felony.
Chris Gammon's hearing was closed, but afterward, Judge J.L. Tompkins granted Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Goad's motion to try the 16-year-old as an adult.
After the hearings, Goad told reporters that he had not decided whether to seek the death penalty.
Carroll County Sheriff R.D. Carrico read answers given to him by Willie Gammon in a statement taken Nov.1 in Henry County, after the brothers were captured by Patrick and Henry County authorities after a high-speed chase.
``I shot my father, and my brother shot my stepmother. I don't remember if I shot her or not. Everything happened so fast,'' Carrico quoted in the hearing from Willie Gammon's statement.
Gary Gammon was hit by a bullet from an SKS semiautomatic rifle and a .25-caliber weapon. Willie Gammon said he had the rifle and his brother picked up a .25-caliber pistol when the couple returned from an all-day trip to Martinsville.
``Can you tell me why?'' Carrico asked.
``I haven't the slightest idea,'' Willie Gammon said.
In answer to other questions, Gammon said his father had demanded that he move out of the home that he and his brother were occupying with the father and stepmother, but he had not gone. He said he and Chris had packed to leave that night. After the shootings, they left in Rebecca Gammon's car. Authorities recovered from the car six firearms, Rebecca Gammon's purse and other objects.
``We weren't going to kill them - just tell them we were leaving,'' Gammon said. He said there was bad blood between him and his father, because his father had left Gammon's mother when Gammon was a small child. He said his father was ``mean and abusive'' toward Chris. He said he ``had no problem'' with his stepmother.
He said he covered the couple after they were shot, ``because I thought they were alive, and I didn't want to kill anybody.'' He also said his father had a 9mm pistol in his hand. ``I don't think he meant to kill us or anything, but he did point it at me, not Chris.''
Rebecca Gammon, testifying from a wheelchair, said she, not her husband, carried the 9mm pistol. She said it was in her purse. The weapon was found in her car after the brothers were arrested.
``They whipped around the corner and started shooting,'' she said, as soon as she and her husband entered the darkened home. She said she was hit three or four times.
Rebecca Gammon's brother, Gary Easter, who lived nearby, said he thought he heard her crying for help. He said he fired three shots in the air from his own pistol when he saw her car pull out. He and his mother went to the Gammon home, and his mother sent him to call the rescue squad.
``When I went back, I saw Gary Gammon lying there on the living room floor, my sister shot to pieces, blood everywhere,'' he said.
by CNB