Jury recommends Death Penalty for William Morva

WSLS News Staff
The Associated Press
Rex Bowman,Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: March 14, 2008

Updated 5:40 a.m.

New video, and article:

By REX BOWMAN
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

ABINGDON—A jury yesterday recommended a death sentence for William Morva, a former beatnik who fatally shot an unarmed hospital guard and a sheriff’s deputy during a 2006 jail escape.

The jury took three hours to reach its decision, which left the victims’ families in tears as they hugged each other in Washington County Circuit Court. Morva looked cheerful, snapping his fingers and smiling when the death penalty was announced. His mother, sitting behind him, wept.

The mother of Montgomery sheriff’s deputy Eric Sutphin, one of the two victims, said justice had been served.

“My son gave his life for the justice system, and this is what he would have wanted,” said a tearful Jeaneen Sutphin.

“I’m extremely happy; I’m very happy,” said Cindy McFarland, widow of hospital guard Derrick McFarland. “I believe he deserved it. He feels no remorse whatsoever. He took two innocent people who didn’t deserve to die, and now he deserves to die.”

Derrick McFarland’s father also was pleased with the jury’s recommendation.

“I’m not really a proponent of the death penalty, but in certain cases I agree with it, and this is one of them,” Harold McFarland said. “This guy showed no remorse. He reacted [to the jury’s decision] as if he’d won the lottery. He snapped his fingers and spoke to the lawyer as if he’d won.”

On Tuesday, jurors convicted Morva of capital murder for shooting McFarland, 32, and Sutphin, 40.

At the time of the shootings and his escape, Morva was an inmate at Montgomery County Jail. He was taken to Montgomery Regional Hospital on Aug. 20, 2006, for treatment of minor injuries. He beat a deputy, took his .40-caliber Glock pistol, and used it to shoot McFarland in the face as the unarmed guard held out his hands, palms up, in a posture a witness described as passive.

The next day, Morva shot Sutphin in the back of the head as Sutphin took part in a massive manhunt for Morva in Blacksburg. Sutphin’s body was found along the wooded Huckleberry Trail, not far from where deputies later found Morva hiding with the pistol.

The search prompted Virginia Tech to cancel the first day of fall classes after someone reported that Morva might have been in one of the campus buildings. Publicity surrounding the escape and killings prompted a judge to move the trial from Montgomery to Abingdon.

During a trial that began last week, Morva was portrayed as a free-spirited, caring and intelligent teenager who became increasingly odd after reaching his 20s. Those who knew him testified that he walked around downtown Blacksburg in his bare feet, eschewed his apartment for life on the street and in cafés, slept on friends’ couches and worked odd jobs only long enough to earn enough money to survive.

A psychiatrist testified that Morva suffered from a personality disorder that made him think police were out to get him, focused him unnaturally on his health and left him overly suspicious. His diet consisted of meat and nuts.

Defense attorneys had pleaded with jurors to sentence Morva to life in prison, arguing that his frustration at being in jail—amplified by a bowel condition that made trips to the toilet a torment—was so great in 2006 that life in prison would be worse punishment than execution.

“Lock that jail and throw away the key,” defense attorney Tony Anderson urged jurors, contending that Morva’s death would be a kind of freedom. “Don’t let your hands unlock the chains, open the door and allow Mr. Morva to escape again.”

But Montgomery prosecutor Bradley W. Finch argued that Morva’s distaste for confinement was one of the reasons jurors needed to have Morva put to death: Morva, Finch said, could escape and kill again.

“What makes this particular defendant so dangerous is that this defendant is extremely intelligent and extremely violent,” Finch said.

“Could there be more of a future danger than the combination of extreme intelligence and extreme violence, the combination of an individual who lives by his own rules, who doesn’t feel the rules apply to him?”

Morva was convicted of three counts of capital murder: one for killing McFarland, one for killing Sutphin, and one for committing two murders in less than three years. The jury recommended death for all three counts.

Montgomery Circuit Judge Ray Wilson Grubbs is set to formally sentence Morva on June 23. Judges in Virginia can lower a jury’s sentence but rarely do.

Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or .

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Updated 5:40 p.m.

Updated with new video

Morva trial timeline

ABINGDON, Va. (AP) - A jury recommended the death penalty Thursday for a man who murdered a hospital security guard and a sheriff’s deputy after escaping from custody.
Families of his victims and his own mother wept as the verdicts were read, but William Morva smiled slightly and snapped his fingers. He nodded to jurors and patted his attorney after he learned his fate.
“He seemed to be acting like he won the lottery,” said Harold McFarland, whose son Derrick was one of Morva’s victims.
It took about three hours for the Washington County jury to agree that Morva, 26, should be executed rather than face life in prison without parole. That’s slightly less than it took the panel Tuesday to convict him of capital murder in the August 2006 killings.
Cindy McFarland, McFarland’s widow, said her tears during the verdict were of happiness.
“He took two innocent people who didn’t deserve to die, and now he deserves to die,” she said.
Harold McFarland said after Thursday’s verdict that he is not a vengeful person, but believed the death penalty was appropriate in certain cases.
“This is one of them,” he said.
Jurors heard heart-rending prosecution testimony about the victims’ exemplary lives, while the defense portrayed the killer as an eccentric free spirit with a personality disorder.
Montgomery County Commonwealth’s Attorney Brad Finch called for the death penalty in his closing statement, saying Morva’s crimes met both legal conditions for the most severe punishment: presenting a danger to society and depravity of mind.
“He is both extremely intelligent and extremely violent,” he said. “That is a deadly combination.”
Morva “showed no mercy” when he shot McFarland in the face from two feet away, Finch said. He then had more than a day to think about what he had done before he shot Sutphin in the back of the head.
“It did not faze him,” he said. “That is depraved.”
Defense attorney Tony Anderson said the killing spree was spawned by Morva’s fear of returning to jail, and that life in prison would be more severe punishment than death.
Anderson acknowledged that what Morva did was horrible, and urged jurors to “lock that jail and throw away the key” because death would represent freedom to his client.
“Don’t let your hands unlock the chains, open the door and allow Mr. Morva to escape again,” he said.
High school friends of Morva described him as caring and gentle. But a psychiatrist who examined him after his arrest said he exhibited nearly all of the traits of schizotypal personality disorder, which made him an intense, inflexible person who was unable to see the perspective of others.
The defense said Morva had felt a building sense of frustration in jail, where he had been held for months without bond after his arrest on attempted robbery charges.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
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Updated 3:44 p.m.

Jury recommends Death Penalty for William Morva

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Updated 12:35 p.m.

Closing arguments are finished.  They jury is deliberating on whether to sentence William Morva to life in prison or the death penalty.

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Closing arguments in the sentencing phase for William Morva are underway.

Montgomery County Commonwealth’s Attorney Brad finch told jurors that Morva is extremely intelligent and violent, which makes him a future threat.  Finch also said Morva uses a high IQ to take advantage of others, feels rules don’t apply to him, and feels superior to other people.  Finch called all of this a deadly combination.  Finch also added that four children “lost their daddies,” and asked the jury to recommend the death penalty.

Morva’s defense team asked jurors to use good judgement, and to not be guided by prejudice or sympathy.  The lawyers also told the jury to not take the decision lightly.  The defense also claimed the death penalty is not appropriate.  They cited testimony from the Captain of New River Valley jail.  She said Morva has not been problem for her, since he’s been there the past year and a half.

10 On Your Side’s Rosa Duarte and Ashley Roberts are at the courthouse in Abingdon.  We’ll bring you the jury’s decision as soon as we get it.

You’ll also see and hear reaction from the decision, tonight on WSLS at 5:00, 5:30, and 6:00 p.m.