ROBERT LEE MYERS
Chronology.
APRIL
1979.
Tina is living in Lee’s Motel and working as a waitress
in Westminster, Carroll County .Md. D.S.S. is
threatening to place her 2 children in Foster Care.
MAY 15th.
Robert Myers starts to eat lunch there frequently.
They become friendly.
JUNE 20th.
Tina’s old car breaks down and Myers offers to buy
her an old one to help her. She accepts.
AUGUST.
In first 2 weeks they have sex 3 times.
AUGUST. 15.
Myers asks her if she knows anyone who would murder
his wife Mary Ruth.Tina contacts an old boyfriend.
AUGUST 23.
Myers and Tina meet with Dan Chadderton for the
first time.
AUGUST 29, 1979:
Mary Ruth Myers is shot 9 times in the chest and back in
her bedroom in Silver Run Valley, in Carroll County.
AUGUST 30, 1979:
A co-worker discovers her body. Robert Myers is in Ocean
City,with Tina at the Trade Winds Motel, which is owned
by the Robert and Mary Ruth.
SEPTEMBER 3, 1979:
Tina moves into the house with her children in Silver Run
Valley and is observed by the State Police to be living
there. Blood still on carpet.
SEPTEMBER 26, 1979:
Myers marries Ernestine Tina Gillen, in Bermuda.
FEBRUARY 17, 1981:
Westminster State Police following intensive surveillance
and having wire tapped and bugged the Myers home and
office and having listened to a thousand telephone
conversations breaking into the Myers house to plant a bug
and conducting intensive surveillance, arrested Daniel Lee
Chadderton an unemployed supermarket worker on a traffic
charge. Chadderton was driving a maroon 1977 Lincoln
Continental for which the registration had expired. It
previously had been registered to Robert Myers and a
handgun was found in the car.
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FEBRUARY 10, 1981:
Tina Myers charged with Bigamy by Bermuda officials
according to the warrant she was married to James E.
Marco, a Florida plumber, at the time of her marriage to
Myers.
JULY 1981:
Tina Myers gives birth to a girl, Sabrina.
SEPTEMBER 4, 1981:
Tina Myers is pregnant, waived the right to an extradition
hearing, and flies to Bermuda to face the bigamy charges.
NOVEMBER 11, 1981:
Corporal James Leete named Chadderton as a suspect in
the death of Mary Ruth during the hearing in Carroll
County Circuit Court, on the gun charge. Leete
acknowledged that Chadderton, Myers and Tina had been
subpoenaed to testify before a special Grand Jury
investigating the murder of Mary Ruth.
NOVEMBER 20, 1981:
Robert Myers appears before the Grand Jury. He is drunk.
NOVEMBER 21,1981.
Myers flies to Bermuda to be with Tina and their baby
Sabrina. Tina is arraigned on the bigamy case.
NOVEMBER 24, 1981:
Grand Jury returns first degree murder indictment against
Chadderton, Myers and Tina. State’s Attorney’s office
announces it will recommend death for each of the three
defendants..
NOVEMBER 25, 1981:
Robert Myers who had flown to Bermuda to share
Thanksgiving dinner with his wife returns to Westminster
under police escort.
NOVEMBER 27, 1981:
Robert Myers is ordered held without bail in the Carroll
County jail. Chadderton, is moved to Anne Arundel
County Detention Center.
NOVEMBER 30, 1981:
Tina Myers pleads guilty to Bigamy in Bermuda and is
ordered deported. She returns to Baltimore,under police
escort .Her name is again Tina Marco.
DECEMBER 3, 1981:
After having an initial bail set at $750,000 it is reduced to
$100,000 and she is ordered held at the Baltimore City Jail.
DECEMBER 15, 1981:
Civil lawyers of Robert Myers said his accounting business
is on the verge of collapse and his estate valued at more
than a million dollars is being liquidated,to pay off more
than $500,000 in debts.
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JANUARY 2, 1982:
The personal belongings of Robert Myers and Tina Marco
are sold at an auction, which attracts a thousand spectators
and bidders. The items are bought for $30,000.
FEBRUARY 9, 1982:
Carroll County Circuit Court judges granted prosecutor’s
request to move the trial and it is scheduled to begin April
19 in Garrett County.
FEBRUARY 10, 1982:
Keating is appointed to represent Myers.
MARCH 22,23rd 1982.
Motions in Garrett Co. Tina is 6 months pregnant.
MARCH 24, 1982:
During hearing, Philip Sutley, who had represented Robert
Myers and was payed by Myers strikes a deal with
prosecutors calling for Marco to testify against Myers and
Chadderton in return for immunity.
MARCH.APRIL 1982.
Chadderton is convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment.
JUNE:
Myers Case is returned to Carroll Co.
SEPTEMBER 9 1982.
Myers Trial Starts. Jury Selection 2 weeks.
SEPT. OCT.NOV.1982.
Myers Trial.
DECEMBER 6 .1982.
Verdict . Guilty .Murder first degree.
DECEMBER 9 1982.
Sentence.
APPEAL:
1985.
Post-Conviction Hearing.
ROBERT LEE MYERS
Setting
Robert Lee Myers, 38 was a wealthy, well-known, well-liked, Westminster
accountant and businessman. He was marred to Mary Ruth Myers who was also well
liked and respected as the person who had enable Myers accounting practice to expand
and allow him to become a millionaire. She as bright, disciplined, and a good mother to
her four children from a previous marriage.
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The coupled married for 10 years, had two children and lived in an expensive
home on Turkey Foot Run in Silver Run, which was a rural community of about 100
families situated 8 miles northwest of Westminster in Carroll County, Maryland. They
lived in a huge hillside home on 21 acres of land, 7 acres of which was a vineyard.
The Myers had moved into the house with its twin parapets about 18 months
before. The estate was the highest part in Silver Run and overlooked an area of
expensive homes and horse farms. The neighbors described the Myers as workaholics
and described Mary Ruth as tall, slender, attractive, blond who was neat dresser. Every
day the neighbors would see Mary Ruth in her new silver Lincoln Continental followed
soon after by Myers in his new silver Lincoln going to work in Westminster.
Their marriage was in trouble and they were often spiteful to each other and sex
being used as a weapon for control.
On August 10, 1979, Myers went out on his first date with Tina, a former
prostitute from Las Vegas, down on her luck and working as a waitress as a local
restaurant in Westminster.
On August 29, 1979 Mary Ruth Myers was found dead in her bedroom. Five of
the eight shots had pierced her heart.
Robert Myers had three dates with Ernestine Tina Marco who was then 29 and a
former Las Vegas showgirl.
She moved into his Silver Run home three days after Mary Ruth was murdered.
When “the blood was not even dry on the floor.” She married Bobby Myers in Bermuda
28 days after the murder even though she had neglected to get a divorce from her fourth
husband.
When the case went to trial, Tina was pregnant with Myers 2nd child and she
subsequently gave birth while in the Garrett County Detention Center. During the
case she had been brought there to testify against both Chadderton and Myers.
Many witnesses are called on Myers behalf to testify that he was honest and
competent in his business dealings and had a jovial and outgoing personality. He was
described as “a top man, very honest and very reliable.” He was also described as, “a
mild, timid, type person.”
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Some of these character witnesses also doubled as material witnesses. Linda Hill
testified that Tina Myers once threatened her in a dispute over the sale if a car by saying
she had “some friends in the Mafia” and further Tina Myers asked Linda Hill if she ever
read California papers, she said “I don’t play games, I have a lot if friends.” One of Tina
Myers husbands, Clarence Botteron, a bail bondsman, and her pimp was murdered in a
California pike bomb blast in 1979.
For 18 months Robert and Tina Myers lived in the house in Silver Run. She
insisted on making someone altercations such as a mirror that covered the entire bedroom
ceiling and adding a heart shaped Jacuzzi.
Tina Marco also moved her two children into the Myers home and immediately
started trying on Mary Ruth’s clothes.
Marco tightened her hold sexual and otherwise on Myers over the next two years.
He virtually became her slave. She would watch television while ordering Myers to
prepare meals, do the laundry, and care fore the child and over the same two-year period
Myers spent $150,000 on Marco while his business collapsed. He bought her 200 operas
of showed, mink coats, and all kinds of jewelry. Tina Myers was a prolific letter writer
and every day she wrote loving letters to him up until Marco and Myers were in jail
waiting trial in Garrett County. All the time Marco was in the midst of negotiations with
prosecutors who would win her freedom in exchange for her testimony against Myers.
The ultimate double cross.
Corporal Leete rugged persistence and the team of state troopers combined with
the State’s Attorney’s office presented formidable problems for Bobby, Tina and
Chadderton. Once it was discovered that her marriage was bigamous they arranged with
the Attorney General of Bermuda to have her extradited to face the Bigamy charges. She
was kept in a jail cell there and on November 30, 1981 she plead guilty to Bigamy and
received a two years sentence and was deported to the United States and the marriage to
Myers was nullified.
By the time I got into the case the trial had already been transferred from Carroll
County to Garrett County Court House which is the most Western County in Maryland
and is located in the mountains. In January of 1982, Judge Donald Gilmore granted the
prosecutor’s request to remove the trials of Bob Myers, Ernestine Myers, and Daniel
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Chadderton from Carroll County to Garrett County. Under provision of the State
Constitution a change of venue was automatically granted when either side requested it in
cases where the State was seeking the death penalty.
I did not understand why the Carroll County State’s Attorney, Thomas E.
Hickman wanted to remove the case from his own ball part to a place four or five hours
away but I did understand that I did not want to be stuck in Garrett County trying the case
for several weeks not only because it was so far away but also it was a small county, and
was rural filled with mountain people. Also it was time to push when the State’s
Attorney pulled and vice versa. I solicited the help of George Burns, an Appellate Public
Defender and we filed an appeal to the Court of Appeals requesting that the case be sent
back to Carroll County. I also felt that since Myers had been so popular in Carroll
County it might help to have a jury selected in Westminster.
We argued that in any crime other than one punishable by life in prison or death if
the State asked for a removal it had to prove there could not be a fair trial in the home
jurisdiction. We further argued that if the State’s right to remove the case was automatic
then being charged with a higher crime when the defendant’s rights were automatically
decreased. It was argued that the provision violated a provision of the State Constitution,
which assured a defendant the right to be tried where the crime had occurred.
While the State’s Attorney, Tom Hickman, did not agree and did nothing the
Defendants could get a fair trial in Carroll County because of the wide spread publicity
that was not up to him to assert. The Attorney General’s Office initially defended the
change of trial site argued that the matter should be considered by the State’s highest
court only after the case was tried.
George Burns argued before the seven member Court of Appeals that the case
should be sent back to Carroll County. The issue we maintained should be resolved
before Myers was forced to stand trial on the charges. The Judge’s questioned the
wisdom of Hickman’s persistence in trying to keep the trial in Garrett County because if
the appeals court which had decided later that the trial should remain in Carroll County
the whole case would have to be thrown out. The Assistant Attorney General argued that
while he did not necessarily agree with Hickman he was merely representing the State’s
Attorney as required by law. He argued that since they were willing to run the risk the
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case should be left in Garrett County. Judge Marvin Smith said, “when I was engaged in
the practice of law from time to time I’ve told clients what they wanted to do was stupid.”
The Assistant Attorney General admitted that he had given this advice to his client but
that Hickman had insisted.
The major goal in getting the case sent back to Westminster was to get a
severance away from Daniel Chadderton who felt quite comfortable having the case tried
in Garrett County since he had grown up not far from Oakland where the Circuit Court
was located. The Judges were interested in the timing of the removal and zeroed in on
Judge Gilmore’s decision to move the case out of the county without first holding a
hearing. Judge Harry A. Cole asked how could the judge use any discretion on where it
was going without conducting a hearing.
Ultimately since the court had clearly indicated its displeasure with the removal
the State caved in and agreed to move the Myers case back to Carroll County, a
significant victory in my mind and also in reality.
SERGEANT DIANE CULP
Diane Culp was one of the first six women to join the State Police in 1974 and
took on many dangerous undercover assignments and to many of her peers she was one
of the most colorful and creative people ever to pin on a Maryland State Police badge. In
her career she served in many undercover roles including a biker chick, infiltrating the
Pagans and sophisticate on a luxury sailboat working cocaine smugglers. She was able to
alter her personality to fit the mission. She was known at times to be a know it all and be
crude. When she joined the State Police it was not easy breaking into the all male ranks.
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She refused to have anything to do with any law suits filed for sexual harassment or
discrimination. She had a tough childhood growing up in South Baltimore. Her
surroundings were not friendly. On assignment as a State Police officer she decided to
not let the resentment from the males bother her and handled it on her own. After a
month or two the other police realized she was not making a statement as a feminist but
that she wanted to be a cop and they realized that they saw her work and never phoned in
sick and realized she was not a sissy. Sergeant Culp requested to help in the Myers
murder investigation. She had been a hostage negotiator, road trooper, and investigator
but her planned destined mission in a dark smelly prison cell in Bermuda left her shaken.
Tina Myers and Chadderton had been indicated however none of the defendants were
cooperating. The State had a largely circumstantial case. The State police came up with
a convert operation once they learned that Tina Marco Myers who had been married four
times had married Robert Myers in Bermuda was still legally married to James Marco a
Florida Plumber. The State police entered into a secret agreement with the Maryland and
Bermuda authorities to have Tina Marco Myers extradited to the island in April 1981 to
stand trial on the bigamy charge. She was planked in a dank prison cell with a tough
sandpaper voiced woman who supposedly had been charged with running cocaine
through the Carribean. It was Diane Culp and her assignment was to get Tina talk, Diane
was in the cell when Tina came in with furs and jewelry. She thought that Culp
understood that Tina thought she was going to a hotel but it was far from luxurious. The
cell was 10 x 10, no windows, no toilet, no sink. Two metal beds, there was small sliding
panel in the door for guards who served the prisoners hot dogs, bread, rice, and water.
The guards beat prisoners for any minor ruling fraction like talking back to them.
Sergeant Culp had been placed in the cell with no contact from the outside and
she began to worry especially when she was taken to court for her rich crime on an Island
that does not tolerate criminals. In court she watched as the judge gave a derelict five
years, no parole for sleeping on a park bench. Since the only people who knew her
undercover role were the Attorney General and the Chief of Police when she was brought
to court she started to get worried in that she was foreigner and did not quite know what
was going to happen. She started to worry the State Police had forgotten about her but
the Attorney General happened to be in the court room and helped Diane Culp straighten
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things out with the Judge. Diane Culp was successful because Tina Marco talked about
the homicide and her direct knowledge of it. She trusted Sergeant Culp so much that she
and her husband wanted to hire her when she got out of prison. On January 2, 1982 more
than thousand people flocked the auction of the Myers home.
Robert Myers had retained a lawyer, Philip Sutley, to help them during the course
of this investigation. He had paid Philip Sutley and Sutley had a power of attorney for
both Tina and Bobby and ended up telling Bobby Myers that they should auction off all
his property and the house to generate funds to retain Philip Sutley privately and that for
public purposes he would represent Tina and an assigned public defender would represent
Myers. But all along Philip Sutley would make sure that the both of them were okay.
Before trial motion for “appropriate relief” alleging that the State knowingly
“cashed in” on what Myers perceived to be the unethical conduct of Philip Sutley,
Esquire. Sutley, according to Myers, was counsel to both Myers and Tina during the
period of time when the “deal” was consummated in which Tina agreed to become a
prosecution witness against Myers and Chadderton in exchange for all charges against
her being not prossed by the State . Myers asserts that the State abetted what he believes
to be Sutley’s professional misconduct toward Myers. Based on that premise, Myers
argues that the prosecution was so tainted “the conviction must be reversed.”
Prior to the time the actual bargain was struck between Sutley and the State, in the
role of a public defender, entered my appearance on behalf of Myers. The trial judge
heard testimony relevant to Myers’s allegation. Although Judge Burns intimated that
Sutley had been confronted by a conflict of interest as between Myers and Tina, the judge
said the prosecution was not tainted by that apparent conflict. Judge Burns specifically
found “that Philip Sutley was not a State agent.” Additionally, the judge found that even
if he assumed arguendo “that Sutley was a State agent,” then “the State … met its burden
[of proving there was no taint] by showing that there was no disclosure of information
received by Sutley from Robert Myers.” The judge went on to say: the entire situation
and relationship between attorney Philip Mr. Sutley and Robert Myers have possibly
placed Mr. Myers in a compromising position, but there is no relief available to Mr.
Myers in these proceedings before this Court, the Circuit Court for Carroll County.
Relief possibly would be available to Mr. Myers in another form or another tribual.
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In March 1983 in the Motions hearings when Hickman announced he wished to
have an in-chambers conference to inform us that he had given immunity deal to Tina
Chatterton and Myers were left in the courtroom, Tina was not brought into the
Courtroom that morning and we knew something was up. I went into chambers along
with co-counsel and the two state’s attorneys. Judge Thayer listened and asked Tom
Hickman to explain what had happened and in short order he explained that Tina had
been given immunity and would testify against Myers and Chatterton. Phil Sutney sat
there and I immediately turned to him, pointed to him, and said you got a real problem
don’t you and he said what do you mean. I said you have the ultimate conflict of interest.
You’re trying to push your own client into the gas chamber. He flushed and immediately
denied any conflict and I said denied any conflict and I said to the Judge, You’re Honor I
was to put Mr. Sutley on the witness stand and he represented Myers all along until I got
into the case and that it’s totally improper for him to negotiate this plea in fact he’s
become a State agent. The Judge calmed us down and allowed us to go into the
courtroom where Sutley was placed on the witness stand and we proceeded to grill him
on his conflict of interest.
Later in Westminster I renewed the Motion and argued that bedfast the State
corrupted Myers right to counsel and in effect taken Myers counsel and used him in the
way they have he was a State agent. I introduced many documents indicating and
demonstrating that Phil Sutley represented Myers. The Judge denied my requested relief.
One day Tina Myers, seven months pregnant, sat with Bobby holding hands and
whispering in his ear while we lawyers argued points of law at the bench in open court.
The next day she came out of the Judge’s chambers and was virtually a free woman. I
had to explain to Bobby that she had in fact double crossed him which in turn meant she
was pushing him into the gas chamber and tears ran down Bobby Myers face and said he
understood the scope of his wife’s defection.
Phil Sutley represented Myers, negotiated with the State Police, Corporal James
Leete, who had headed the investigation to surrender his client.
Myers was in Bermuda when the indictment was handed down on a Monday night
and Sutley said his client would agree to return to Maryland. Corporal Leete flew with
another trooper to Bermuda. They escorted Myers on the return flight although they did
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not arrest him until the plane was on Maryland soil. With his coat draped over his hands
cuffed in front of him, Myers seemed in good spirits as Leete escorted him through the
airport terminal. He laughed between his answers to reporters’ questions and even
appeared to tell Leete a joke. Myers said that his wife and child in Bermuda were doing
fine. According to Sutley Myers went to Bermuda for Thanksgiving to be with his wife
and brought a turkey down there not thinking he was going to be indicted so he had to cut
short his holiday visit. Sutley said that this case was the most complex of any of the
more than 100 murder cases he has handled over the years. It was going to get to be quite
complex.
On Wednesday November 25, 1981, the Carroll County Evening Sun reported
that “Robert L. Myers was expected to return from Bermuda late this afternoon,
according to his attorney, Phil N. Sutley.
“The Myers’ attorney said he expects a lot of motions before this case comes to
trial.”
“Speaking for his clients, Sutley said Tuesday, ‘they say their innocent, and I
believe them. I intend to do everything possible to prove their innocence.’” He said that
he was not surprised that the State was seeking the death penalty for the Defendant and
that he had met Sunday with Robert Myers and had prepared him for this possibility.
A Federal Court hearing before Magistrate Rosenberg was conducted but Tina
Myers and her new born child were extradited to Bermuda in September 1981 on a
bigamy charge and additional the County State’s Attorney’s Office investigated and
charged Mrs. Myers with welfare fraud on October 1st while she was awaiting a hearing
in Bermuda.
Mr. Myers and Mr. Chadderton testified in front of the Grand Jury on Friday, later
Myers left for Bermuda to see Tina who was pregnant awaiting trial while taking care of
their 21 week old daughter, Sabrina Renee Myers. Mr. Chadderton is the child’s
godfather.
Both Bobby and Tina made statements to the newspaper that the police were
harassing them and making their lives hellish. On several occasions they had their photos
taken outside of the Silver Run Home. Myers attorney said corporal Leete is responsible
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for prodding enforcement of what he calls a rarely prosecuted bigamy charge and
subsequent extradition.
I was the assigned Public Defender
In order to raise money to finance the defense of Tina Myers and Robert Myers it
was decided by Phil Sutley when Myers civil attorney, Thomas Stansfield, to conduct an
auction at the house where Mary Ruth had been murdered. Bargain hunters and thrill
seekers alike packed the front yard of the Myers home for a Saturday action on January 2,
1982. A few shivering people sat around the living room inside to escape the wind. In
all it was estimated that more than 1000 mobbed the hilltop real estate to stroll through
the house and gawk at the mirror accented master bedroom and tried to outbid their
neighbors for furniture to cart home in the back of their pick-up trucks. Carroll County
agreed that they have never seen anything like the carnival that took place at the Myers
house on Silver Run. While household auctions were a common social event in the rural
county the Myers action was different because the two owners were very much alive
during the sale of their personal belongings. Robert Myers was ten miles away in his cell
in the county jail in Westminster and Tina, the other owner, 30 miles away in the Women
Detention Center.
During the course of meetings with Orrin Brown, Chadderton’s lawyer, and Philip
Sutley it was clear that Sutley had no intention of filing Motions while Brown and I had
filed over 50 motions and during our meetings were energized and strategizing about the
situation, Sutley didn’t seem interested.
The trial had been removed to Oakland in Garrett County. Oakland, a town of
2,000 people is perched near the top of a 2,500-foot mountain in the Appellation range
western part of Maryland. Myers filed an appeal to the Court of Appeals in order to have
is case returned to Carroll County since 1 felt strongly that if the State’s Attorney did not
want it in his home ball part for whatever the reason, I would prefer it to be there rather
than up with the mountain people. Chadderton who had grown up near Garrett County
and had relatives there decided he was better off being there and in any event it was a
guaranteed way to sever the case. We stayed in Garrett County for the third week in
March 1982 for the motions while Bobby Myers and Tina Myers and Chadderton were
all housed in the Garrett County Detention Center. Orrin Brown, Philip Sutley, and
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myself stayed at the Will of the Wisps Ski Lodge on Deep Creek Lake and for the first
couple of days in court a bizarre picture of Myers holding hands with Tina was seven
months pregnant, seated next to Chadderton. The trio were together. The Will of the
Wisp a motel and condominium complex and ski lodge was deserted because of the time
of year. Orrin Brown and I shared a nice hot Whirlpool to discuss the case on Sunday
and Monday nights and on Tuesday nights Sutley did not come back to the Will of the
Wisp. Orrin Brown and I both understood that we were getting screwed ad that Sutley
was probably making a deal for Tina, which could effectively put our clients in the gas
chamber
On March 24, 1982 in Garrett County the defense attorney, Sutley, announced
that Tina had agreed to testify against Chadderton and Myers in exchange for immunity
for first degree murder and welfare fraud charges. She lies. She’ll do anything to save
her ass” Myers told a reported Sutley commented that he thought that she really wanted
to do the right thing and that contrary to what had been written about her she’s not an all
together bad person.
I had never met Thomas C. Hickman before the Myers case but a I respected him
because at an early age he moved from Baltimore City to Carroll County and
immediately became the State’s Attorney. He had a good mind and a great booming
voice which made a formidable affirmatible adversary since it was coupled within a bull
dog demeanor. However I soon learned that I could make him angry and decided that a
big part of my case would soon learned that I could make him angry and decided that a
big part of my case would have to be attacking him even thought on a personal level he
was quite likable. I said about finding out all I could about him and my great glee I
learned that when he’s been elected State’s Attorney for Carroll County on election night
1974 in a prepared speech he stated “I made up my mind that if I lost the election for
State’s Attorney that I would come here to this restaurant, Frocks, on election night
November 5, 1974 and kill the reporter primarily responsible for those wonderful articles
which Hickman maintained had been written with a reckless disregard for the truth.”
Hickman stated that “he still had the pistol he intended to use.” He was reading from a
prepared text and told about 50 members of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce
and local and Baltimore press that the chambers monthly luncheon in Westminster that
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the articles which had appeared in the Hanover Evening Sun on October of 1974
suggested that he had taken a bribe and violated a federal criminal law running for public
office and that not met the county residence requirements. He’d been easily elected in
1974 and re-elected in 1978. Hickman had been only 27 and he said he and his wife had
been terribly hurt by the accusation particularly an article detailing his purchase of a new
bed. He noted his family’s reputation for honesty and said then wished he never planned
to run for office. He told the audience that “it is hard to imagined that was led to
seriously consider such districted act, but I tell you now without shame and with regret
that I did.”
Hickman had engaged the press in a legal battle to prevent them seeing the
autopsy report of Mrs. Myers. “The spirit of revenge burns to some extent but in all of
us” he said. His hate filled remarks were met with a standing ovation from all with the
Chamber members present. Dean Mimick who is the managing editor for the Carroll
County Evening Sun characterized Hickman as an honest and fair man and agreed with
many of the State’s Attorney’s comments.
The Carroll County Evening Sun printed a weekly column written by Mr.
Hickman concerning activities in the State’s Attorney’s Office. Mr. Mimick said that he
appreciated the fact that Mr. Hickman had the courage to say what he did say to the
Chamber members.
The Sun Papers in Baltimore and the New York Times picked up the State’s
Attorney’s comments since they were so bizarre and in an editorial titled “Pistol Packing
Prosecutor.”
One I discovered that he’s made these remarks I made am motion to have him
removed from the case on the basis that I was scared of him and that if he was going to
shoot a reporter I was certain that he would shoot me if I were to win the case. I said to
Judge Burns hat I wanted to wear a bullet proof vest while I made this particular motion
and I requested that Mr. Hickman be placed on the witness stand so I could develop the
idea that because to these comments made some 8 or 9 yeas earlier I on some level had to
be scared to effectively represent Robert Myers and therefore he was going to be denied
his sixth amendment right to counsel.
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The judge refused to allow me to put Hickman on the witness stand and asked me
why I wanted to do that when I had a copy of the written speech he had made to the
Chamber of Commerce and I replied that I wanted to demonstrate that Mr. Hickman had
been drunk when he made these comments. Mr. Hickman got to this feet and said I was
not drunk at the time and I looked over and said I was trying to give you the benefit of the
doubt to try to explain why you would make such comments. My motion to have him
removed was denied.
On August 29, 1979, employees of Maryland Business Service, an accounting
firm owned and operated by Myers, became concerned when their co-worker, Mary Ruth
Myers did not arrive at work. Three employees, drove to the Myers' residence. Finding
the front door open about eight inches and music playing loudly, they entered the house
and yelled out to Mrs. Myers. She never answered. They found her lying on her bed with
a pillow over her face and a red spot on her chest. An autopsy completed the following
afternoon revealed that Mrs. Myers had been shot nine times in the head and chest. A tengauge shotgun with the receiver broken open was laying by the side of the victim. A
nine-shot astro revolver (with eight rounds fired) and a .22 caliber rifle were found laying
on the floor. Although the bedroom looked ransacked with plants overturned, drawers
open, phone ripped from the wall, jewelry, and money in plain view had not been taken.
Mary Ruth's white poodle was found penned in a hallway closet. A chess table in the
poolroom had been knocked over and the gun cabinet in the den had been tampered with .
The remaining rooms in the home appeared to have been untouched by the intruder.
At the time of the murder, the Myers' joint real estate assets exceeded 1.5 million
dollars. Under the victim's will all of the property passed to Myers upon her death. Mary
Ruth Myers had four children by a prior marriage; Myers had three children by a prior
marriage. Approximately two years later the Carroll County Grand Jury indicted Myers,
Daniel Chadderton, and Ernestine Marco for the murder. Since Ernestine Marco married
Robert Myers on September 29, 1979, 30 days after the murder of Mary Ruth Myers was
consequently indicted under the name of Mrs. Ernestine Myers. The state sought the
death penalty in each of their cases.
At the State’s request the cases were removed to the Circuit Court for Garrett
County and The Honorable Frederick Thayer presiding. The State was represented by
15
Thomas A. Hickman the State’s Attorney for Carroll County and one of his assistants,
Frank Coleman.
At the time of discovery of the victim's body, Myers could not be immediately
located. He had last appeared in his office at MBS on August 16, 1979. It was later
learned that he had been on an odyssey with Tina Gillen Marcos and at the time of the
murder was in Ocean City, Maryland at the home of Maria Poulos. Myers was finally
contacted in Ocean City and returned with the victim's daughter Kimberly Abbott to
Silver Run on the evening of August 29.
Ten witnesses testified that long before the murder Myers told each respectively
that he no longer loved Mary Ruth, that he wanted to be rid of her, that a divorce would
ruin him financially, and that he could get a contract on Mary Ruth's life.
The State’s principal witness was Ernestine Layne Butcher Botteron Gillen Marco
Myers (“Tina”). In return for her testimony against Myers and Chadderton, the State nol
prossed both the murder charges, a pending charge of welfare fraud and withdrew its
Notice of Intention to Seek Death. After two weeks of jury selection in Westminster,
Maryland the Myers trial commenced with the Honorable Luke K. Burns presiding.
On March 23, 1982, Tina Myers entered into an agreement with the State
whereby in return for her truthful testimony, she would not be prosecuted for the murder
of Mary Ruth Myers. Tina Myers testified that she met Myers in April or May, 1979,
while she was working at John O's, a restaurant and bar in Westminster. On August 10,
1979, Myers bought her a 1976 Ford Torino. Tina and her two children spent that day
with him, driving to his trailer in Mount Holly, Pennsylvania. A couple of days later,
Myers called Tina from Ocean City and asked her to come and spend some time with
him. She drove to Ocean City in the Torino, stopping in Reisterstown to show her new
car off to an acquaintance, Daniel Chadderton.
Tina testified that she first met Myers during the spring of 1979, and during the
early and middle part of August they developed a serious sexual relationship. During
most of the two-week period before the murder the two of them traveled together through
Pennsylvania and Maryland, including stops at Myers’ Ocean City motel and his trailer
park in Pennsylvania. At some point between August 18 and August 20, Myers asked her
if she knew someone who could kill his wife stating that a divorce would be too
16
expensive. Several State’s witnesses testified that during 1978 and 1979, Myers indicated
that he wanted to be rid of Mrs. Myers and anted to “have a contract put out on her.” She
replied that she did not, and Myers then asked if she knew someone who would “rough
her up.” She mentioned Daniel Chadderton, whom she testified had earlier offered to
“break the bones” of a person who had mistreated Tina. She then put Myers and
Chadderton in touch with each other.
Tina’s testimony continued to the effect that during the early morning hours of
August 23, 1979, a meeting occurred between herself, Myers, and Chadderton, Myers
agreed to pay Chadderton $10,000 to kill Mrs. Myers.
On August 28, according to Tina, Chadderton “stalked” Mrs. Myers in Ocean
City, but was unable to confront her. On August 29, he left his job as a “night porter” at
the Pantry Pride early, traveled to the Myers residence, killed Mrs. Myers, and at 5:20
a.m. called Myers and Tina in Ocean City to inform them that he had completed the job.
By pre-arrangement with Myers, Tina went to room 4 of his motel, the
Northwinds. When Myers learned that she had arrived, he entered the room by crawling
in through the bedroom window. Myers explained that his stepdaughter could see if he
used the door. Tina returned to work in Westminster on Tuesday, August 14. That Friday,
August 17, 1979, Tina saw Myers at Angelo's where she was working. Around 8:30 p.m.,
Mary Ruth Myers entered Angelo's and started arguing with Myers who got up and
walked away. Myers met Tina in the kitchen, hugged her, and asked her to meet him at
Sharkey's Cove Restaurant and Bar when she got off work.
At the time, Tina was rooming at Horton's Boarding Home, which was located a
few blocks from Sharkey's Cove. Because Mary Ruth Myers followed Myers to Sharkey's
Cove, Myers left and went to Horton's where he met Tina. They spent the night at
Horton's, and then began a two week odyssey, which included stops in Mount Holly,
Pennsylvania, Reisterstown, Maryland; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Wildwood; Ocean
City, Maryland. One night, while the two were out for dinner, Myers asked Tina if she
knew someone that would kill his wife:
"I -- I thought he was joking, and I said no, and he said, 'Well,
you're from Las Vegas aren't you? Don't you know somebody.' And I said,
'No, I don't know anyone that would kill her.' I said, 'Why don't you just
get a divorce?' And he said, 'No, because she would take everything.' We
17
had had this same conversation other than the killing part earlier that day. I
believe we called Alan Fox first, an attorney that I knew, and he called an
attorney that he knew.
Q. Would that be Wood Swam?
A. Yes. I kept asking him in this restaurant this particular night
how much would it take just to divorce her. He said that he had lost
everything from his first marriage, but he wasn't going to lose it again.
Then he asked if I knew someone that would rough her up, to make her
give him a divorce without asking for everything he had. I thought of
Dan."
Tina explained that a former boss had once assaulted her. Chadderton, in return,
had offered to break the assailant's arms, legs, burn his house, or whatever for Tina.
Myers asked Tina to call Dan. Using a pay phone in Mechanicsburg, she called
Chadderton and told him that she had someone who wanted to meet him, that he
[Chadderton] could possibly make some money. Chadderton replied that Tina knew
where he worked and to bring the person to the Pantry Pride where he was employed as a
janitor in Reisterstown. The following evening around midnight, Tina and Myers drove to
the Pantry Pride. The trio chatted for awhile then Tina went to the car. Sometime later
Myers went over to the car and asked Tina to write down the name of his wife, 4636
Turkey Foot Road, her height, color of hair, approximate weight. A few minutes later
Myers returned to the car and told her to come and say good-bye to Chadderton. As they
were leaving, Chadderton said to Myers, "Don't forget. I want half down and half when
the job's finished..." Myers replied that they had to go on a trip, and that they would be
back.
Myers and Tina then drove on to the Myer’s Northwinds Motel in Ocean City,
Maryland and later to the residence of Maria Poulos, which was located above her
establishment, the Electric Circus Discotheque in Ocean City, Maryland. When they
arrived at Poulos' apartment, Myers told Tina to get a bank deposit together with the
receipt from the Northwinds Motel and asked Maria if he could lie down. Tina asked Ms.
Poulos if she would help her make out the bank deposit. As Mrs. Poulos was pulling
money out of a white paper sack, Tina asked if she could freshen up. When she returned,
Myers was standing talking to Ms. Poulos. Myers said that the bank deposit was ready
18
and the couple drove to a bank in Ocean City. At the bank, the couple met Myers' stepdaughter, Kimberly Abbott, who was crying. She begged Myers to come home and to
call her mother. Myers responded, "No, I'm not calling her.”
That evening, Myers and Tina drove to a Howard Johnson's in Pikesville,
Maryland. Myers took with him the same white paper sack, folded over. When the couple
entered the restaurant, Chadderton was sitting at the counter. The trio asked for a table,
ordered breakfast, and then Tina excused herself to use the restroom. When she returned,
Myers and Chadderton were finishing up. The trio went out to the car where Chadderton
opened the white paper sack and counted the money. Myers apologized that he did not
have the whole $5,000, but said that he couldn't take it out all at once, but we'd be back in
couple of days. Dan said that was fine. And they left.
On Sunday, August 26, 1979, the couple drove from Ocean City a Pantry Pride
Store in Randallstown, Maryland, where they again met Chadderton. When Chadderton
got into the back seat of their car, Myers handed him a tin foil package. Chadderton
counted out the rest of the money and asked the couple if they were hungry. The trio went
to a fast food restaurant in the same parking lot. As they were getting ready to leave,
Myers stated: "To make sure it looked like a robbery, just to make sure it looked like a
robbery."
Myers and Tina then drove to Wildwood, New Jersey. Leaving there on the
August 27, 1979, they went to Resorts International in Atlantic, New Jersey. Tina took
the opportunity to visit a friend of her former husband's, Ted Knurek, who was working
as pit boss at the casino. Eventually the couple arrived back at the Northwinds in Ocean
City, where Myers recognized Mary Ruth Myers car parked by their apartment. The
couple decided to visit Maria Poulos, who invited them to stay with her.
On August 28, 1982, Myers was having a beer in the Electric Circus when the
bartender handed him the phone. When Myers hung up, he said:
"Well, he blew it. And I said, 'Who?' and he said, 'Dan.' And I said,
'What do you mean.' Well, he's in Ocean City.' And I said, 'Oh.' He said,
'We're going to meet him at Grannys.”
When Tina and Myers walked into Granny's, Chadderton was sitting in a booth.
they joined him. Chadderton said that "he wanted to get her in Ocean City. He was
19
playing with a knife in his hand." Tina left Granny's to join Maria on a shopping trip. As
they exited the restaurant, Tina saw a new motorcycle and said to Ms. Poulos, "Well, that
must be his new toy”.
Around 7:00 p.m. on August 28, 1979, Myers asked Tina if she would try to get
hold of Chadderton, that Myers had talked to one of his step-children and had learned that
Mary Ruth Myers was going to Turkey Foot Road and would be home alone. Tina left
word with Chadderton's wife.
At approximately 4:00 a.m. on August 29, 1979, while Myers and Tina were
sleeping, Maria Poulos knocked on their bedroom door saying, "Bob, telephone”. Myers
picked up the phone and put the phone to Tina's ear. Tina said "hello”, and the voice said,
"She's dead, our job's done, she's dead, shot nine times”. Tina recognized the voice as
being that of Dan Chadderton. The following morning Myers was in a great mood,
buying flowers, making dinner arrangements and being very cheerful. That evening,
Myers received a phone call from Jerry Welsh, the manager of the Northwinds Motel.
Mr. Welsh told Myers that there was some trouble at his home, that he thought the house
had been broken into. When Myers got off the phone, Tina suggested that she call
Charlotte Horton to see if she had heard anything. Ms. Horton told Tina that it was
rumored all over town that Mary Ruth Myers had shot herself. Maria Poulos drove Myers
to the Northwinds Motel where Myers joined his step-daughter, Kimberly, and the two
drove back to Westminster. Tina later drove herself back to the rooming house at
Charlotte Horton's. On September 1, 1979, the day of the funeral of Mary Ruth Myers,
Tina moved into Myers' home on Turkey Foot Road.
The following week Myers gave Tina $5,000 to take to Dan Chadderton at the
Pantry Pride store. When Tina arrived and told Chadderton that she had his money, he
said that he would be in touch, that there was "a lot of heat around," and to get off the
property. A week or two later, Myers and Tina were at home on Turkey Foot Road when
they heard a motorcycle out in front. Chadderton, accompanied by his wife, knocked at
the front door and said that he had come for the balance of his money. After indicating
that his wife knew "all about it", the Chaddertons were invited into the living room and
Chadderton went into the details of the murder. Among other things, he apologized for
breaking the molding on the back door, that he had put the 'dog in the bathroom, that he
20
had lit a cigarette which he eventually put out in a potted plant; that he pried the gun
cabinet open to make it look like a robbery; that he loaded two guns; that he took Mary
Ruth Myers by the arm, walked her down the steps into the master bedroom, told her to
sit on the bed, then to lie on the bed, that if she believed in God, to pray. He yanked the
telephone cord out of the wall, then he shot Mary Ruth Myers. Myers' response to
Chadderton's recitation was "Why did you have to make such a mess?"
Myers and Tina were married in Bermuda on September 26, 1979 and lived at
Turkey Foot Road for approximately two years. During that period Myers bought Tina
fur coats, jewelry, clothing, and a Mercedes.
Myers and Daniel Chadderton became "quite chummy”. Chadderton would show
up at the house or Myers and Chadderton would go out drinking, or the two couples
would go out for dinner. After the final pay off, Chadderton came to Myers and said that
he had spent almost $4,000 on legal fees. Myers replied, "No sweat”. Then, according to
Tina, Myers continued to give Chadderton money for a variety of reasons. In September,
1981, Tina was extradited to Bermuda on bigamy charges. Myers invited and paid for the
Chaddertons to vacation for a week in Bermuda with Myers and Tina. Eventually, Myers
gave Chadderton his '77 Lincoln Continental.
Independent evidence which corroborated Tina Myers' testimony included the
testimony of the employees of the Maryland Business Service; and the victim's three
children who normally lived at the Turkey Foot Road home. Judy Hoffman saw Myers on
the morning after the murder (before the autopsy had been performed) and Myers told her
that Mary Ruth had been shot nine times.
The odyssey details were corroborated by Isabel Sharkey, the owner of Sharkey's
Cove; Robert Hood, a boarder at Charlotte Horton's in August, 1979; Edward Knurek, the
pit boss at Resorts International; Leon Hickman, the night captain at the Pantry Pride
where Chadderton worked; Kimberly Abbott, the victim's step-daughter who was
working at the Northwinds Motel in August, 1979; Jerry Welsh, the manager of the
Northwinds Motel in 1978 and 1979; Maria Poulos, Tina's friend and owner of the
Electric Circus; and exhibits including a motel registration for the Quality Inn in
Randallstown on August 23, 1979, State's Exhibit No. 17 & 18; the phone records
21
respectively of Charlotte Horton, Maria Poulos, certain pay phones, the business office at
the Pantry Pride store in Reisterstown.
Evidence corroborating the details of the murder include the testimony of Leon
Hickman, the night captain at Pantry Pride where Chadderton worked; that of Adam
Handschuh, a coworker of Chadderton at the Pantry Pride; Mary Fooks, a housekeeper at
the Northwinds who saw a man on a motorcycle asking for Mary Ruth Myers; as well as
the photographs and exhibits of the crime scene. Furthermore, Thomas Bowman and
Terry Romano, inmates at the Garrett County jail testified to two conversations that they
overheard between Myers and Daniel Chadderton. The video tape testimony of Jay
Gillen, one of Tina Myers' former husbands, corroborated several aspects of Tina's
testimony.
Tina Myers, was asked on redirect examination to explain her earlier remark that
Myers "was not the goody-two-shoes that everyone thinks he is." The transcript reveals:
"Q. What did you mean by that?
A. It wasn't just Mary Ruth that he wanted killed.
Q. Why do you say that?
A. Because I overheard Dan [Chadderton] and Bob [Myers]
discussing to kill Corporal Leete and yourself, and two others."
At that point I objected and moved for a mistrial. The judge instructed the jury to
disregard Tina's testimony concerning Myers's plans to commit future murders. The
curative instruction was adequate, and there was nothing to show the jury failed to heed
the court's instructions.
Over the objection and denial of a motion for a mistrial, the State introduced
evidence that in September, 1979, Myers reported to an insurance carrier that certain
items of jewelry belonging to Mary Ruth had been stolen, when in fact they had not. The
prosecution's theory of the admissibility of that evidence was that Myers planned the
murder of Mary Ruth to be carried out so that it appeared as if there had been a robbery,
and reporting of the items as stolen was in furtherance of the murder plan. The evidence
was relevant to show an attempt by Myers to cover up the crime. We perceive no error.
22
Ronald Frampton testified, over objection, concerning Myers's "sexual activity
with women on The Block." Frampton's testimony was a repetition of similar evidence
that had been admitted without objection.
During the cross-examination of Tina, I proffered that I desired to ask Tina about
statements she made to Myers that while she was living in Nevada she had been involved
in or had knowledge that individuals were taken into the desert, murdered, and buried.
The State objected to that type of cross-examination, and Judge Burns sustained the
objection. Myers asserts that the evidence was the proper subject of cross-examination
because it was relevant both substantively and for purposes of impeachment.
We maintained that the proffered evidence was relevant because it would tend to
confirm his theory that Tina was the one responsible for the murder of Mary Ruth. The
Court said events in Nevada unrelated to the killing of Mary Ruth were clearly collateral,
if not irrelevant, to Myers's guilt or innocence.
The Court ruled if the proffered evidence were relevant, its tendency to appeal to
the passions and prejudices of the jury to gain their sympathy and to shift the focus from
Myers to Tina far outweighed its probative value. When we say outweighed its probative
value, we mean that such evidence might cause the jury to decide the case on an improper
basis, i.e., emotion.
The alleged acts of Tina which Myers sought to probe neither resulted in a
conviction nor were probative of her character for veracity. The character trait suggested
by the proffered incident relates to her knowledge of alleged violence, not to her
credibility.
The Court said Tina's credibility was fully inquired into ____________. spread
before the jury the seamy side of Tina's reputation, including testimony from her father
and uncle that she was dishonest and not to be believed. Tina's son testified that she used
to say about herself that she "lied, lied, lied, lied, lied, a whole lot." There was also
testimony that Tina had a juvenile record for theft; had engaged in a credit card "flimflam" in California for which she received a prison sentence; was a prostitute in
California; and had lied on several occasions to social welfare agencies regarding her
domestic and financial affairs. The latter resulted in a fraud charge which was nol prossed
23
when she agreed to testify against Robert Myers. Tina admitted that before becoming a
State's witness, she deliberately started a false rumor that the state's attorney had asked
her several times for a date. Her purpose in so doing was to cause the disqualification of
the prosecutor.
Tina Myers, was asked on redirect examination to explain her earlier remark that
Myers “as not the goody-two-shoes that everyone thinks he is.” The transcript reveals:
Q. What did you mean by that?
A. It wasn’t just Mary Ruth that he wanted to kill.
Q. Why do you say that?
A. Because I overheard Dan [Chadderton] and Bob [Myers]
discussing to kill Corporal Leete and yourself, and two others.
At that point I objected and moved for a mistrial. The judge instructed the jury to
disregard Tina’s testimony concerning Myers’s plans to commit future murders. The
curative instruction was adequate, and there was nothing to show the jury failed to heed
the court’s instructions.
Over the objection and denial of a motion for a mistrial, the State
introduced evidence that in September, 1979, Myers reported to an insurance carrier that
certain items of jewelry belonging to Mary Ruth had been stolen, when in fact they had
not. The prosecution’s theory of the admissibility of that evidence was that Myers
planned the murder of Mary Ruth to be carried out so that it appeared as if there had been
a robbery, and reporting of the items as stolen was in furtherance of the murder plan. The
evidence was relevant to show an attempt by Myers to cover up the crime. We perceive
no error.
Ronald Frampton testified, over objection, concerning Myers’s “sexual activity
with women on the Block.” Frampton’s testimony was a repetition of similar evidence
that had been admitted without objection.
“The trial court erred in refusing to grant a mistrial as a result of the improper
closing argument of the State’s Attorney.”
Judge Burns, Myers claims, abused his discretion when he refused to grant a
motion for mistrial bottomed on the alleged improper closing argument by the prosecutor.
During that argument, the prosecutor twice made statements which could be viewed as an
24
attempt to bolster the credibility of Tina by placing his own credibility in issue.
Moreover, he implied that Judge Burns’s ruling with respect to a particular evidentiary
point was erroneous. The prosecutor overstepped his bounds, and Judge Burns properly
and promptly admonished him in the presence of the jury. Additionally, the judge
immediately instructed the jury to disregard the State’s Attorney’s improper comments.
“It is unprofessional conduct for the prosecutor to express his personal belief or
opinion as to the truth or falsify of any testimony or evidence or the guilt of the
Defendant.”
During the cross-examination of Tina, I proffered that I desired to ask
Tina about statements she made to Myers that while she was living in Nevada she had
been involved in or had knowledge that individuals were taken into the desert, murdered,
and buried. The State objected to that type of cross-examination, and Judge Burns
sustained the objection. Myers asserts that the evidence as the proper subject of crossexamination because it was relevant both substantively and for purposes of impeachment.
Myers maintains that the proffered evidence was relevant because it would tend to
confirm his theory that Tina was the one responsible for the murder of Mary Ruth.
Testimony concerning events in Nevada unrelated to the killing of Mary Ruth were
clearly collateral, if not irrelevant, to Myers’s guilt or innocence.
We think that if the proffered evidence were relevant, its tendency to appeal to the
passions and prejudices of the jury to gain their sympathy and to shift the focus from
Myers to Tina far outweighed its probative value. When we say outweighed its probative
value, we mean that such evidence might cause the jury to decide the case on an improper
basis, i.e., emotion.
The alleged acts of Tina which Myers sought to probe neither resulted in a
conviction nor were probative of her character for veracity. The character trait suggested
by the proffered incident relates to her knowledge of alleged violence, not to her
credibility.
Tina’s credibility was fully inquired into by Myers’s attorney. He spread before
the jury the seamy side of Tina’s reputation, including testimony from her father and
uncle that she was dishonest and not to be believed. Tina’s son testified that she used to
say about herself that she “lied, lied, lied, lied, lied, a whole lot.” There was also
25
testimony that Tina had a juvenile record for theft; had engaged in a credit card “flimflam” in California for which she received a prison sentence; was a prostitute in
California; and had lied on several occasions to social welfare agencies regarding her
domestic and financial affairs. The latter resulted in a fraud charge which was nol
prossed when she agreed to testify against Robert Myers. Tina admitted that before
becoming a State’s witness, she deliberately started a false rumor that the State’s
Attorney had asked her several times for a date. Her purpose in so doing was to cause the
disqualification of the prosecutor.
Short of a conviction for perjury, it is difficult to conceive how Tina's reputation
could have been further sullied.
Diane Amspacher, a bookkeeper at Maryland Business Service from February, 1980
through October, 1981, testified to details of the continuing cover-up by Myers,
Chadderton, and Tina Myers as well as the blackmailing of Myers by Daniel Chadderton
following the murder.
Melvin Ray Keith, Jr., who dated Myers's stepdaughter, Dana Abbott, from 1976
through 1979 testified that sometime before the murder of Mary Ruth, Myers had an
argument with Dana during which Myers placed his hands around Miss Abbott's neck.
The act produced a red mark on her neck. I objected to that testimony on the basis of its
lack of relevance. The state's attorney proffered that the evidence was relevant to confirm
that Myers did not want Mary Ruth's children in the house and that he had "to put up with
them as long as Mary Ruth Myers was alive." We think the testimony was tenuous and
irrelevant, and should not have been admitted.
A minor assault on his stepdaughter, Dana Abbott, eighteen months prior to the
murder of Mary Ruth Myers, Miss Abbott's mother, does not translate into a motive to
kill the mother, nor does it constitute a "common plan." The connection between the two
events was so unrelated that it is almost inconceivable that the prosecution would
jeopardize its case by presenting such irrelevant, testimony. The Court of Appeals held
that the admission of that testimony was clear error.
However, that provided Myers with no relief, because it deemed the error was
harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury was not misled by the dubious connection
between the aged minor assault on the stepdaughter and the murder of the mother. In light
26
of the other evidence adduced at the trial, the revelation of the "assault upon Dana
Abbott" pales into insignificance.
The defense produced several friends and former clients of Myers who testified to
his non-violent character. Brad Myers, one of Tina’s children, expressed admiration for
Myers; Butcher, Tina’s father, and Carmen Butcher. Tina’s uncle, each testified that
Tina was not honest or trustworthy. Melody Hanes from the Department of Social
Services described the living conditions of Tina Myers from April through September,
1979, while they were in foster care. Thomas Stansfield, Myers’ attorney for civil
actions, testified as to Myers assets in August, 1979 and at the time of the trial. He also
related rumors he had heard regarding the number of shots that had been used to kill
Mary Ruth Myers.
Myers did not testified in his own behalf.
In his closing argument the prosecutor twice made statements which could be
viewed as an attempt to bolster the credibility in issue. Moreover, he implied that Judge
Burns’s ruling with respect to a particular evidentiary point was erroneous. The
prosecutor overstepped his bounds, and Judge Burns properly and promptly admonished
him in the presence of the jury. Additionally, the judge immediately instructed the jury
to disregard the state’s attorney’s improper comments.
It is unprofessional conduct for the prosecutor to express his personal belief or
opinion as to the truth or falsity of any testimony or evidence or the guilt of the
defendant.”
Thomas Bowman testified about an incriminating conversation between Myers
and Chadderton that he overheard in March, 1982, while all three were incarcerated in the
Garrett County Detention Center. Bowman related to the jury that Chadderton told
Myers that Tina is “going to have to be shut-up. She’s going to have to be taken care of,
got rid of,” before she made a “deal”’ with the state’s attorney. Chadderton, Bowman
said, went on to say that he could arrant to have a hired assassin “take care of this shut
her up” if Myers “‘came up with some money, twenty or thirty thousand dollars.’”
Meanwhile, according to Bowman, Myers stood by silently and nodded his head up and
down. Bowman narrated that he heard Myers interject, “‘I know we shouldn’t have
gotten into this mess to begin with … I now we shouldn’t have called her there to the
27
house… I know they’d know it was me.’” Chadderton then allegedly replied, “‘Well,l
that’s the only place I could get a clean shot at her. That’s the only place without any
witnesses or anything that I could do.’” Following that remark by Chadderton, Robert
Myers, Bowman testified, just looked at Chadderton without saying anything.
Chadderton’s remarks concerning the need to eliminate Tina as a witness were
admissible to show Myers’s reactions to the assertions. By nodding in the affirmative,
Myers adopted Chadderton’s remarks as his own. A declaration by an accused that he
intends to intimidate or procure the absence from the trial of a State’s witness is
admissible as evidence of the accused guilt.
Patently, Myers by his silence acquiesced in Chadderton’s declaration that the
marital residence of Myers and Mary Ruth was the only place he could “get a clean shot
at her.” Chadderton’s comment was in response to Myers’s statement that, “I know we
shouldn’t have called her there to the house.” Chadderton’s remark was not offered as
proof of the truth of its content, but rather to show, as we have said, Myers acquiescence
therein.
Corporal Leete and another Maryland State Trooper went to see Chadderton on
September 8, 1979, at the latter’s place of employment. When asked to describe what
occurred during that meeting, Leete said:
“[W]e parked our car directly behind the car of Daniel Chadderton, and when he
came out [of his place of employment], we exited the police vehicle. He looked at us,
and I in fact asked him if he had a gun in his car, and he replied no. And at that point,
without any prompting, he went over and put his hands on my right front fender of my
police car and assumed the frisk position.” Myers counsel promptly objected to Leete’s
answer on relevancy grounds, but he did not move to strike the response. We agree that
the testimony was irrelevant. Chadderton’s assuming the frisk position without
prompting might be viewed, inter alia, as indicating his prior experience of having been
searched before by law enforcement officers, or knowledge gained from viewing
television or motion pictures. Even if we assume, however, that the jury believed that
Chadderton’s assumption of the frisk position was based on his prior first hand
experience in being searched by police officers. Adam Handschuh told the jury that in
September, 1979, when he asked Chadderton if the latter had killed Myers’s wife,
28
Chadderton responded, “‘I’m not going back to the slam, but if I do I’m taking two
people with me.’ And I said, ‘who?’ And then he just started sipping his coffee.’”
After 65 State witnesses and 25 defense witnesses had testified. Myuers was
convicted of first degree murder after the jury had deliberated for three days. The
Honorable Luke K. Burns was requested to decided whether or not Myers would be
executed. Myers was sentenced to imprisonment for the balance of his natural life. I
participated in formulating the issues for Appeal. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed
the conviction, cert. denied.
Myers filed a Post-Conviction Petition challenging my competency as his
attorney. Chief Judge Donald Gilmore of the Circuit Court of Carroll County presided at
the hearing and concluded that my representation had been “outstanding” and that my
decision not to put Myers on the stand probably saved him from the gas chamber. Chief
Judge Richard P. Gilbert of the Court of Special Appeals was also complimentary.
While incarcerated and waiting trial, on December 16, 1991, Myers saved the life
of a cell mate in the Carroll County jail who was attempting to hang himself.
At the sentencing he said he was innocent but trusted in God and Myers smiled
when Judge Burns sentenced him to life in prison. Myers aid, “The jury was wrong. I
am innocent. I didn’t want Mary Ruth to die. I didn’t plan it, I didn’t pay for it.” He
read these comments from notes on a yellow legal paid, his voice showing no emotion.
He said he had faith that the Judge’s decision will be guided by the will of God. Myers
went on to say that he was shocked to learn of his third wife, Tina’s, part in the murder
and said “I was a fool.” I was a fool many times in my life, but I never hurt anybody.
“Judge, you may wonder about my jovial nature,” Myers continued, “but it’s based upon
my faith that God has determined all things. I want to thank you Judge Burns whatever
the sentence. I feel strongly and believe that you will do it with the will of God. Father
Myers and Tobey, a former Chaplain at the Maryland Penitentiary and a Jewish convert
to Catholicism was called to the witness stand, and testified about the hanging he
witnessed, and the trauma caused on everyone involved. He told of the sometimesdifficult nature of killing another human being. He described an inmate’s neck that was
not broken with the fall and that a prison official pulled on his legs until he strangled to
death. The priest’s testimony, which included detail descriptions of other executions, left
29
Myers red nosed and teary eyed. During another man’s gas chamber execution the man
kept his eyes on Father Tobey through the window and the two repeated together, “My
Jesus, I love you,” as the gas began to take effect, his whole body twisted and jerked and
then his head dropped,” Father Tobey recalled. Although he was believed to be dead, “he
lifted his head up and looked me straight in the eyes and he began to form the words,
“My Jesus, I” and his head dropped again.” His testimony was rivetting.
I spent much of my time arguing that the conduct of the State’s Attorney, Tom
Hickman, Frank Coleman, and Corporal Leete at a post verdict dinner at Maggies
Restaurant in Westminster was a mitigating circumstance. Apparently the family of
Mary Ruth Myers and the principals from the prosecutions team celebrated the jury’s
verdict and the new papers had detailed how one of the prosecutors had showed a pie in
the face of Myers civil lawyer all in a joking mood, however, I was desperate to argued
anything that would help save Myers life and several time during the sentencing I
expressed my disbelief and outrage at the public function and asked that the party be
considered a mitigating circumstance in Myers sentencing in that their public behavior
was inappropriate, unprofessional, unbecoming and that it was an affront to the judicial
system and to the dignity of the State of Maryland. The Judge did not agree and
Hickman spent a lot of time in his argument for death justifying and apologizing for the
party. He argued that “you can not put into terms and no one can understand our relief
and no one stands in our shoes and that the prosecutor had worked on the case for three
years.
An hour after the sentencing was over, the lights were out in the courthouse, and
the spectators had gone to their suppers. Shelly Myers Rex who was 19 and stunned.
Her father, Bobby Myers, had just been sentenced to life for murder. She was having a
hard time accepting the fact that he would not be around to share Christmas with her or to
grandparenting love should she have children. Shelly remembered a happy childhood
when the whole family, Shelly, her two brothers, Mom and Dad would go camping on
weekends or go out on Friday nights together or going to dinner or shopping or spending
Saturday night at the stock car races. It was a happy childhood until she was 12 years old
when things started to unravel between her mother and her father. They were not happy
anymore. Shelly had to face choices she did not want to make. Her loyalties were
30
towards her father as he was so soft hearted. He was gentle and pliable dad; the man
people called Bobby as in Tina and Bobby. The good times did not end abruptly when
her mother and father divorced. They slipped away although she was placed in the
custody of her mother she came back to visit her father whenever she could. However
she said with a friend because there was tension between her and the late Mary Myers.
They didn’t hit it off. Mary Ruth did not like sharing his time with Shelly and that was in
the summer of 1979. When Tina first came across the scene she was a real charmer and
she treated Shelly sweet and was nice to her as anybody could be. She treated her like a
princess for a while and then gradually Tina let it be known that Shelly was not welcome.
Tina stated to assert herself, Bobby and Tina would be going out Friday night, and they
would not allow Shelly to go with them. Bobby would say well come on lets bring
Shelly with us and she would say no she must stay home she must baby-sit. Bobby often
said well we can get a sitter but Tina was always insist “No, I said she stays here and
she’s the sitter.”
Shelly had known that there was an investigation into the murder of Mary Ruth
and her father and Tina were suspects it was very difficult for her. When they arrested
her dad she was sure it was a mistake that it would all go away. It Had been two years of
torment not only for her but also for others in the family who loved Bobby Myers. Every
other Saturday since they arrested Bobby she traveled from her home in Pennsylvania to
visit with them for 20 minutes through the bars and after the sentencing Judge Burns
agreed to let her spend some time with her father in a room in the courthouse. She sat on
his lap and they just hugged each other and wept. The visit meant a lot to both of them
and she felt that Judge Burns who might give many gifts over this holiday season will
have none of them appreciated more than letting her see her daddy and be with him so
that there was no bars between them. She wanted to make sure that Judge Burns
understood her gratitude and that even though she only had a few moments with her
father she felt that he was a fair and compassionate man allowing her this extra taste of
childhood.
Myers had explained to the police that he thought that this was a burglary because
various items were missing from his home. He had first described some guns, which
were missing but later recalled that some of them had been sold but he said that there was
31
packet of $2,000 in cash wrapped in tissue. It was missing from its hiding place under
some towels in the bathroom at his Silver Run home at the time Mary Ruth was
murdered. No one had believed Myers since it was not believed that it was a burglary.
I requested the opportunity to review all the items which had been taken from the
murder scene by the police including a red overnight suitcase that was being held at the
State Police barracks in Westminster when I went over there the police were incredibly
aggressive and hostile to me. A huge State Trooper ordered me to sit down behind a desk
and threw the suitcase on the desk and said anything you touch in here you will have to
mark your initials on it. I was furious at the way I was being treated so when they opened
the suitcase I pulled out the first item. The suitcase was full of all kinds of sexual objects,
pornographic movies, suck machines, everything you can think of and then some. This
had been found by the bed where the victim had been shot to death. She had been in her
bikini underwear at the time. In any event as I went thought the objects I discovered
$2,000 dollars in one hundred dollar bills near the top of this sexual paraphernalia. I
immediately called the State Trooper’s attention to the money and immediately wrote
down the serial numbers of the bills. It was obvious to me that the State Police had been
so angry with me because they intended to pocket this $2,700 cash. The prosecutor never
intended to put the suitcase into evidence about it. Simple after the case was over to
remove the money. In any event of course when I got back to my office I documented
what had happened from my notes I had taken there. I was amused by the fact that the
State Troopers started to indicate to me that they were sorry that we’ve gotten off on the
wrong foot. I knew that my discovery would help a little bit.
In cross examination of Corporal James Leete on the way into the courtroom I
told him that I was going to have him look through the entire suitcase and mark dildough
and every that was there. He looked at me and said “you wouldn’t would you” and then
knotted his head and said “yea, you would.” There was a continuation of my cross
examination and I put the red suitcase up where I could get each access to it and at the
appropriate time walked over and picked it up and put it in front of Corporal Leete and
asked him if he could identify the contents. He took a big sigh and opened the suitcase.
He took in some more breath and geared himself as he was waiting for me to have him
mark each item. I couldn’t keep a straight face so I went back to the trial table and asked
32
him to identify the contents. With some difficult Leete opened the suitcase and paused
for a moment s he delicately pawed through the contents “the suitcase contains
pornographic films and various sexual devices such as vibrators, dildos, joy cream, etc.,
etc., “Leete said. Leete had previously testified that Myers had told him his new wife
Tina Marco would refuse to have sex with Myers whenever she found out he’d been
talking to Leete and for that reason Myers had asked to meet him in his Westminster
accounting firm office instead of the Silver Run Estate he shared with Marco. “Leete
said he told me that when Tina found out he talked to me he would cut him off sexually
Leete testified. It was one of those conversations shortly after the murder that Myers
suggested that Marco had arranged the murder. He was to continue suggesting that in the
next couple of years. ‘He told me once again that Tina had been the one to do this alone’
Leete testified about a later meeting. Leete added that he sought to keep his cordial and
friendly relationship with the usually affable and talkative Myers – whom he almost
immediately considered a suspect – “on a strict law enforcement basis. In fact, I told Bob
that the day would come when I would have to arrest him and testify against him in
court, Leete said as he gazed at Myers sitting a few yards away at the defense table.
During their conversations after the murder Leete said Myers would always deny
his own guilt and sometimes offer contradictory explanations of incriminating evidence
that Leete would present. An example, Leete said, was Myers’ explanation of how he
allegedly knew how many times Mary Ruth had been shot at the same time that police
were trying to keep that information secret.
First, Myers told him one person told him the detail, and then changed the source
to another after Leete checked the first out. And finally, Leete testified, “He told me that
whoever told me that he said Mary Ruth was shot nine times was lying.” Leete was a
calm, cool demeanor witness, he has, on a couple of occasions, lost his cool demeanor
when he interpreted some of Myers remarks as an offer to bribe him. “He asked me what
it would take to get me off his back, and I interpreted from the tone of his voice that he
was attempting to bribe me. He then said that if he knew a professional, that he would
have me done in, have me hit.” Leete further testified that he attempted to isolate Myers,
Marco, and Chadderton - the three suspects - and tell them different stories is an attempt
to win their cooperation.
33
With Myers, he said, he told him Marco could be planning to kill him. “I would
tell Bob that he should be careful of Tina,” Leete said. “That probably the only reason
something wasn’t happening to him was because there was such intense police pressure.”
And when he talked to Marco, he said, he advised her to cooperate and disassociate
herself from the other two. I think I told her something to the effect that she was on a
sinking ship and if she wanted to get off, it was up to her, Leete said or she could go with
the ship. He implied to Chadderton that he was getting information from the other two
suspects. Leete testified that on one occasion a few days after the murder Chadderon saw
Leete and another State trooper outside the Reisterstown Pantry Pride store where he
worked and that without prompting, Chadderton, assumed the position against Leete’s car
after Leete asked him if he had a weapon in the car. Leete said he took advantage of the
situation to search Chadderton but he assure Chadderton he was not under arrest but got
Chadderton to agree to go with the troopers to the Westminster barracks for questioning.
When they arrived there and said Chadderton telephoned his wife to check on her
progress in getting him a lawyer. Chadderton discovered that Trooper Sabicki was there
interviewing her and he became very agitated, Leete testified, adding that Chadderton
then angrily said he no longer would talk to them and wanted to leave. Leete said
Chadderton strode to the door and stopped. “He asked me if I would give him a ride back
to his car at the Pantry Pride.” Leete said, adding that he gave Chadderton a lift.
When he was confronted with the money that had been discovered in the suitcase
Leete agreed that he had not believed Myers claim that the money had been stolen. Leete
testified that “I did not see the $2,700 laying in the top of the suitcase in the many times I
went through it.” Leete said “I would imagine it came as a surprise to you that is to
finding the money and Leete said Yes, sir it did. The corporal offered no explanation as
to how the money suddenly appeared in the case that was being held in the State Police’s
custody after three years. “There’s an investigation taking place” Leete said it is under
the direction of the barracks commander. The newspaper reporter stated that was not the
only suitcase. The reported gloated that the small read case was not the only suitcase that
caused Leete’s some constellation in court. Keating pulled a larger red suitcase from
behind the clerk’s desk, Leete sighed softly. He’s obviously seen the suitcase before.
34
ROBERT L. MYERS
Post Conviction Proceeding.
After the Myers conviction had been affirmed by the Court of Appeals he then
directed his attention to the representation I had provided him and under the post
conviction act I was called into open court to justify the way I conducted the defense of
the case.
In order to demonstrate that a lawyer was ineffective or incompetent it is
necessary for the client to waive privilege and once that is done the lawyer is free to tell
everything he knows about the case.
I was called to the witness stand in March of 1986 by the State’s Attorney, Tom
Hickman, who was now my lawyer. He was determined to demonstrate that I had
provided fair representation. I testified before Judge Gilmore that I did not place Myers
on the witness stand. I felt some of the comments he had made could have sent him to
the gas chambers and that only by keeping him off the stand could I prevent the jurors
from hearing the statement’s he had made.
Before I got into the case Myers went before the Grand Jury. He was drunk. He
was the wrap up witness and had been invited to give his side after some twenty-five
witnesses had been called over a period of two weeks. The Grand Jury was ready for
him. Among the things that he said to the Grand Jury and to State Police Investigator,
Corporal James Leete, on the day of the murder “I’m going to miss her. She’s one of the
best piece of ass I ever had,” Myers went on to describe his and Mary Ruth’s use of
sexual devices in their marital relationship then he testified that he used sex as a weapon
often putting her fingers between her legs and then putting them under his nose and
saying you’re not going to get any of this. Before the Grand Jury accused Corporal Leete
of being a viscous police officer trying to frame Myers and when asked by one of the
Grand Jurors in what way he was viscous Myers said that “Leete went around farting in
people’s faces.” Myers testified that Leete was trying to get him to earn a promotion and
the trooper was fabricating evidence.
Testifying before the stunned panel, Myers said “yes, I did say I wished the bitch
was dead” and at another point stated that he could have murdered Mary Ruth on the
35
couple’s “142,000 boat if he chose to and Myers said, “If I wanted to do her in the
Captain would never had known it. There were slippery seats. I just had to give her a
little nudge. But I don’t kill anyone. I’m a lover.”
Myers also told the Grand Jury that Mary Ruth had pulled knives on him and “I
just couldn’t take it no more.”
In his testimony to the Grand Jury Myers attacked the credibility of at least fifteen
people accusing Mary Ruth of immoral acts and testifying that her was sure Tina Myers,
whom he had married less than a month after the death, was aware of organized crime
and I’ll probably get shot next.
I also testified that at Myers deposition in the civil suit when he was attempting to
recover $8,000 that Mary Ruth left with a neighbor for the children in case something
happened to her. Myers had committed perjury by denying that he knew Daniel
Chadderton or even Chadderton’s last name. Too many witnesses had seen the two men
together and knew they were friends.
Morris Caplan the lawyer representing Bobby at post-conviction insisted that it
was incompetent of me not to have put Myers on the witness stand I responded by telling
the Court that I had had a practice session with Myers with me taking the roll of the
prosecutor and to the question “had you ever discussed this question with your lawyer”
Myers replied “No.” I then stopped and asked him why he answered no to that question
and he said, “What do you want me to say,” I then proceeded to ask Myers why he
appeared at Angelo’s Restaurant in Westminster with Tina on his arm three or four days
after the murder, information I told him the State was sure to know. Myers looked at me
and said, “I didn’t, did I.” I was convinced that Myers was an uncontrollable,
uncoachable, witness.
During the court of the hearing, I represent four cartons, four file drawers each 2
feet by one foot filed with material I gathered on Myers case. The information ranged
from letters Tina Myers wrote to the defendant to a psychiatric evaluation of Myers
where there was extensive data on Tina who had turned State’s evidence.
On the day Bobby Myers was sentenced to life in prison, Tina Myers told a
Baltimore New America Reporter that, “I’ll be there when he gets out (prison), I’ll wait
as long as it takes.”
36
After the initial shock of Tina Double crossing him had sunk in in Garrett County,
Myers said to me. “I’m gonna tell you. Tina said to me, you marry me and take care of
my kids and I’ll have your wife murdered for you.” “Bobby Myers was upset and
hysterical when he was let down said that to me just a few hours after he had learned his
wife, Tina was going to testify against him in his trial.
After we heard that Tina was to be a state’s witness Daniel and Sherry
Chadderton and his lawyer, Orrin Brown, Myers and myself met in a large conference
room in the Garrett County Jail, right after we had information that she was going to be a
state’s witness in exchange for immunity. I testified “he was very upset and I told him
Bobby you’ve got to tell me.” Myers never repeated the statement and later denied
knowing Mary Ruth was going to be murdered and denied putting up the money to pay
Chadderton for the murder. However, it hung in the back of my mind and the further
reason why if Myers made that statement on the witness stand he would quite likely get
executed.
Morris Kaplan was starting to piss me off after two days on the witness stand.
The Judge was giving him latitude and asked me repeatedly whether or not the trial had
just been an ego trip for me and suggested I was ineffective because I refused to let
Myers talk. Myers would have to have became contradicted that people had testified that
he had said there were ways to get rid of Mary Ruth and to divorce her and that he’s said
that he could get a contract on his wife and that he had said that it would cost too much to
divorce her.
Morris Kaplan kept on at me and at one point said, “we’ve got ya going now, your
eyes are blinking Mr. Keating.” The truth was he was getting me going. He was really
pissing me off. But I said it’s your socks Mr. Kaplan, there are shinning in eyes.”
Kaplan was wearing blue, red, and yellow argyle socks with block and tan checked
trowsers. The courtroom exploded in laughter.
Kaplan insisted that I could have explained away the Grand Jury statements by
showing that Myers has been drinking the day he went before the Grand Jury, however, I
maintained that I didn’t think the Grand Jurors would forget Myers personal attacks on
his murdered wife.
37
ROBET LEE MYERS
Characters
MARY RUTH MYERS
She and Robert Lee Myers met in the mid 1970’s when she visited Maryland
Business Services, Inc. his Westminster accounting firm. She was married in 1974; it
was her third and his second. She had four children by previous marriages and was 38.
He was 33.
An experienced businesswomen, Mary Ruth Myers, was put in charge of her
husband’s firm and many said she had much to do with the success during that period.
The couple lived in a lavish hilltop home on 21 acres in Silver Run Valley in Carroll
County, Md., owned a motel in Ocean City, had a boat, and drove matching Lincoln
Continentals. Mary Ruth Myers had been worried about her safety and had given $8,000
in cash to a friend to give her children in case something happened to her.
ROBERT LEE MYERS
He graduated from Westminster High School and took a correspondence course in
Tax preparation, which proved to be the springboard for the accounting business he
opened in the early 1970’s. When his business expanded after his marriage to the former
Mary Ruth Abbott, he speculated heavily in real estate and other interests. At the time of
his wife’s death in August of 1979 his worth was estimated at a million dollars. During
the ensuing 27-month investigation, clients stopped coming to his accounting office and
his assets crumbled. Myers told the police he believed his wife was killed because she
interrupted a burglar or that she may have been the victim of drug dealers who allegedly
had threatened her in Ocean City. He maintained he had no motive for killing his wife
pointing out that she had only $10,000 in life insurance. He said he and his wife were
heading for divorce before her death and that he had been dating Ernestine Tina Marco
before the killing.
ERNESTINE TINA MARCO
38
She was 29, had been married at least 3 times, and was the mother of two children
when she left Florida to come to Carroll County in early 1979. During the next six
months she was a barmaid or cocktail waitress in a half a dozen bars or nightclubs in the
Westminster area. She and Robert Lee Myers met in one of those bars. Less than a
month after the killing, Marco, and Myers married in Bermuda. Their marriage was
dissolved 26 months later when Marco pleaded guilty to bigamy. By that time she’d
given birth to one child by Myers and was pregnant with another. Marco agreed to
testify against Myers and Chadderton and was the star witness at those trials. After the
trials, her cases were dismissed and she was free to leave the State of Maryland. She
moved to Texas and then the obligation of staying in contact with the State’s Attorney’s
Office for Carroll County.
On October 15, 1982, while on the witness stand she admitted she was guilty to
first-degree murder. On the first day of her testimony she came in dressed up wearing
much jewelry and on the second day she dressed down a little bit. The third day she was
dressed ordinary. The jewelry was appraised at about $8,000 and she did not wear it
again since I had attacked her and asked her if she had not been accepting welfare. In
December of 1982, Tina continued to press her love for Bobby Myers and complained
she was tired of being publicly portrayed as an evil, black widow spider, and lewering
men into her web. She said that the lawyers that I had crucified her on the witness stand.
She did not love Myers when she married him in September1979 and said that she slowly
grew in amid with the account. She was housed in the Garrett County Jail complex for
more than 8 months and maintained even after his conviction “I love Bob, she blinked
back tears stating that I have four children and I wasn’t sure I wanted to die for him.”
Tina could not wait for his interview with the reporter and allowed a new photograph to
be taken of her. Myers was still waiting to be sentenced and faced the gas chamber while
Marco, whose release from jail was imminent wore designer jeans and a fashionable gray
sweater. Her facial expressions ranged from serious to mournful to amuse and she
bought for fifteen minutes before allowing the photograph to be taken. On December 1,
1981 Bermuda Attorney General, Saul Froomkin alleged that Robert and Ernestine Myers
had married in an attempt to prevent official authorities from asking them to testify
against each other in the murder proceedings according to the associated press. Maryland
39
has a spousal immunity law. Defendant attorney Alan Dunch had asked Bermuda
Supreme Court Chief Justice James Atwood not to be influenced by what he had heard
about the murder proceedings. He also disclosed that Mrs. Myers was pregnant with her
fourth child, which was conceived since she was extradited to Bermuda to face the
bigamy charge. The Bermuda authorities were reimbursed before transporting James
Marco, a St. Augestine man, and Mrs. Myers third husband, to the preliminary hearing on
November 12. He testified that nine days after their wedding his wife had disappeared
while he was out to buy a package of cigarettes. Corporal Leete along with Vicky Lutz
flew to Bermuda to return with Tina and her five month-old daughter. Once her Eastern
Airline jet landed at BWI she was arrested and taken before a court in Westminster with
bail being set. Subsequently she was taken to Baltimore City Jail.
At her bail hearing Tina told the judge that she would like to put her 10-year old
and 12-year old from previous marriages in school. She told the judge that she did not
know the full extent of her assets but that her Mercedes 450 SL had been repossessed.
Tina Myers laughed silently while Corporal Leete said the witnesses and her
husband told him that Mrs. Myers had shown a picture of them, of her “godfather” and
she has organized crime connections with the city of Chicago and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sutley could not avoid asking Leete whether or not he had ever had a godfather. Leete
admitted that he did at one time. Tina Marco claimed to have nightmares that started
immediately after the murder. She claims that it was always Dan Chadderton stalking her
in the middle of the night and that the dream varied. She would go to bed and outside the
room she would hear footsteps in the hallway and a man with a husky voice would say to
her, “If you believe in God you better start praying” and he would shot her nine times.
Marco stated that it was awful since there was not a day that went by that she did not
think of it. That she would lay in bed and close her eyes and see Dan Chatterton come to
the foot of her bed and start shooting her. Evonne Kerr, Marco’s grade school guidance
counselor said that Tina was a girl you just could not forget. Her life had been a
tumultuous journey including abandonment by her mother, bitter estrangement with her
father. Tina Butcher’s mother deserted the family at an early age leaving her father who
married Tina’s stepmother. Gay. Tina felt her real troubles began when she was nine
years of age when she was raped by a neighbor in Mount Clair, California. “Throughout
40
the tape he kept saying, “I love you, I love you (and when your parents never said that
they love you that’s important) she said it was difficult with Tina to know if she was
fabricating the entire attach, especially since her parents and counselors at school never
knew about it but Tina’s eyes filled with tears when she discussed how it shaped her
relationship with men throughout her life. That incident she claimed led her to confuse
kindness with love and that is one reason she spent almost two decades jumping from one
unstable relationship to another. “If someone was kind to me I thought it meant that he
loved me” she said and “I felt the only thing I had to offer them was my body. I didn’t
know what love was. I confused it.”
By 1966 when Tina was 14 her life already was marked by constant scrapes with
school officials and police. After spending time in the Sanburnadino, California Juvenile
Home, she was placed with the California Police Authority, a ventura based agency that
dealt with juveniles. Her father and stepmother, Earnest and Gay Butcher, didn’t want
her home. Her sister, Veronica, and her husband, Terry Hamel, tried to adopt Marco to
get her related. When they were turned down, they went to ask her in-laws, Stanley, and
Mary Ellen Hamel to help. A month before Tina’s 15th birthday in June 1966 she went to
live with the Hamels in their modest ranch house with pink shutters in Rialto California.
Soon Tina was calling her mom and they became very close. Hamel felt Marco’s
troubles were caused by the poor relationship she had with her father and step-mother in
that there was never any love or emotions shown in that home. She felt that Tina was
starved for love and just never seemed to find it with anybody.
Tina was precocious to learn all about life so she didn’t stay with the Hamels very
long and after several months se ran away to marry Bill Plessner, a 19year old that she
met at a drive-in movie theater earlier that year. Her father consented to the marriage
because he said she would have married him with or without his approval and then Mr.
Butcher bought her a dress and pair of shoes and gave her $50 and they drove to Las
Vegas that night and got married. Two weeks later after living with Plessner and his
parents in Rialto Tina walked out. She said that she’d been listening to the radio, was
very bored, and had about $2 and decided to take a walk. She had on a green pantsuit, o
shoes, no purse, and walked out fully intending to get a pack of cigarettes and come back.
She got lost and kept going. Plessner who was earning $45.00 per week at a car wash
41
knew that she was upset about him not making enough money and seemed to think that
she felt he could do better, he was convinced that she had married him just to get out
from under the youth’s authorities. After she walked out it was 18 months before
Plessner or Tina’s family and friends heard from her again then one day she just showed
up and said here I am. Plessner by that point had already divorced her. He knew that she
was a great manipulator.
Tina had hitch hiked to Los Angeles to learn all about life and the day she got
there it was raining something awful and here she was barefooted and didn’t know a soul
in Los Angeles. She said that she was talking the streets for hours and she finally found a
doorway behind the Brown Derby Restaurant to sleep. Several days later she noticed a
sign outside the building saying “model wanted, cash daily.” The firm doing the
adverting, Pretty Girl International, hired Marco right away to do nude modeling and she
made money every day. Throughout 1967 and 1978 Tina said she channeled between
Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the placed she fantasized about so many years before
finding temporary jobs in restaurants and bars. Men also helped her with her living
expenses. She had one who paid her rent, one who bought her clothes, and one who
brought her groceries, she said. According to Tina one of her new friends was Lee
Hazlewood, a popular musician who wrote songs for Frank Sinatra including These
Boots are Made for Walking and Summer Wine and Jackson. Tina said she and
Hazelwood dated off and on in 1968.
In 1967 while Tina was a waitress and Foxies Delicatessen in Las Vegas, Tina
said she had her first brush with prostitution. She was counting her tips one night when a
well dressed man approached her and said you seem very happy, Tina recounted he said
how would you like to make that much money in a half an hour. I said what to I have to
do stand on my head. The next day the man took her to a nearby hotel, he took me up to
a room and told me to strip she said. I thought it was another modeling job and he said
“you’ll do fine, stay here.” After putting her clothes back on the phone rang. The man
whom she would not name said I’m sending someone up to you and I want you to be nice
to him.
About ten minutes later Tina said the biggest man I’ve ever seen walked though
the door and he put $100 down on the dresser and he started taking his clothes off and he
42
told me to take time off too. Tina said she ran out when she realized what she was
expected to do “I was so stupid” she said “but not long after that incident” Tina
apparently changed her mind.
Tina becomes a “high class hooker” who worked in one of the leading motels and
gambling casino in Las Vegas. Most of her friends were hookers who were married to
dealers at gambling casinos.
James Palmer, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
testified in the trial that his investigation into Tina’s past revealed she’s been a prostitute
in California and on the block in Baltimore. Tina asked said Mary Magdeline was a
prostitute too and then she said “there were very few women, in my personal opinion,
that have not been a prostitute at one time or another.”
“I never felt more like a prostitute then when I was married with the exception of
Bob. My husband’s made me feel like a prostitute. If I needed money for cigarettes or
milk or a pair of shoes for the kids I had to ask for it and then be subjected to 120 reasons
why I shouldn’t have it. I learned very quickly that if I buttered them up and paid them
an extra good time in bed that I could get it and that was the only wait it ____________
and that was the only way, I know it sounds awful but it’s the truth.
In 1968 at 17, Tina had a brief affair with a Las Vegas bartender, Chuck Lemous,
and became pregnant and eventually gave birth to her first child, Brad. Later that same
year Tina started dated Clarence “Skip” Botteron, a Las Angeles bail bondsman,
Botteron, Tina said felt sorry for her for having to raise Brad alone. “I knew absolutely
nothing about babies, all I knew was that he cried a whole bunch. I couldn’t even put a
diaper on right.” In November 1970, Botterton divorced his wife and married Tina one
hour later in a hasty Las Vegas ceremony.
Tina becomes pregnant a second time and gave birth to a daughter. But just about
the time Gracey was born, Botteron’s once flourishing business went bankrupt and Tina
said she had to work waitress jobs to make ends meet. She worked 16 hours a day and he
sat home and baby-sat she said. The couple moved to Las Vegas hoping to make a live
for themselves but their relationship continued to deteriorate. “I hated him” Tina said “I
couldn’t stand the sight of him because he deceived me all the time. Everything he told
me was a lie.” In October 1971, 11 months after they were married, Tina divorced
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Botteron, Botteron was furious. At the time Tina was wanted in Los Angeles for
overdrawing from their checking account and Botterton told Las Vegas authorities where
they could find her. She was arrestee, extradited to California, convicted on the charge,
spent the next 6 months in jail. The sentenced Judge, Rosenthal, placing on Tina 3 years
probation suspending the rest of the sentence said “You’re a problem child. You have
been that way for a long, long time. The only one that could help you. I think is you
yourself and you will have to do something to correct your ways and see whether you
can’t find a proper course for yourself and your children.” Her probation officer, Ed
Nealson, remember Tina as “she was a high powered prostitute in Las Vegas at the time.
She was very pretty, very mature, she really knew how to carry herself and knew how to
handle people. She was probably sociopath. She was a manipulator, a very smooth
operator, very intelligent, very smooth and very polished.” Seven years after Tina was
released from jail in April of 1979 Botterton was killed on California freeway when a
pipe bomb exploded under the seat of his car. According to Palmer, a federal agent who
investigated, Tina was a suspect because she had once threaten Botteron during a custody
battle over their daughter, Trace. Botterton’s death remains unsolved.
Following her release from jail, Tina began dating James “Jay” Gillen, a 37-yearold Las Vegas bar tender she had met while still married to Botteron.
In November 1973 when she was 22, Tina married Gillen, his second, and her
third, Gillen felt as though he was “fellow on the white charger who was going to rescue
her and she described him as four years of “hurt me, hurt me, love me, love me
relationship. Our relationship was a roller coastal.” Gillen felt that Tina was to blame for
many lows and said that her “macula changes in her mood that would swing from kind
and love in one moment to selfish and frantic the next. It was her lifestyle to be up and
down” he said if there hadn’t been a problem for six weeks she’d create one. It was
Tina’s belief that their relationship soured because of Gillen’s excessive drinking.
When Gillen had been on week’s bender and was so drunk he could barely get in
the back door she said “I’ll be right back” and left him for three days. She left the kids
with him to worry about it and as an excuse for gambling she said that she would get
back at Jay for drinking so much. Their marriage becomes a disaster when she insisted
on taking the grocery money and spending it at the 21 tables. And then in 1976 she
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discovered Gillen was having an affair. She drove around town looking for him and then
pulled her car in the driveway of a friend’s home where Gillen had stayed during one of
their many separation and then she pulled into the driveway in front of the garage,
knocked on the door and rang the door bell. There was no answer so she walked around
to Jay’s bedroom where he’s slept and all she could see was the television on the window
and the window just broke when she banked on it so she started banging on the window
and the window just broke when she banked on it so hard an then she crawled inside the
window and got to a light switch by the door but when she flipped it on she saw two
bodies on the bed, Jay facing her. She started screaming and started throwing lamps in
the bed, clothing, ashtrays, anything she could get her hands on. She yanked the
television set from the outlet which was still on, out of the wall and threw it on top of
them. She ten ran out of the room down the hallway and as she ran she was throwing
things. Jay ran after her, his underwear down on his ankles screaming “nothing
happened. Please listen to me.” She ran to her car and locked the door and Jay went to
the front of the car and tried to lift up the hood. So she put the car in drive and drove
him through the garage door and then backed up and he started to run toward the car so
she put it back in drive and ran through the side of the house.
He ran stark naked to his car, a Lincoln Continental Mark Four, as if trying to
protect it and Tina seeing red backed up and floored it and drove her car into the side of
his.
A year later Tina and Gillen were divorced.
When her marriage to Gillen was over, she had a longing to find the mother who
had deserted her as a baby. She wanted to know her and wanted to meet her. She’s
grown up with what her father told her about her mother but she wanted to find out for
herself.
He reunion with her mother would be the first leg of a journey that ultimately
would land her in Maryland.
In November of 1977 with the help of her uncle, Carmon Butcher, Tina flew from
Law Vegas to Jacksonville, Florida to see her mother. Carmon Butcher had promised the
father that he would never reveal where the real mother was however, Tina was 26 years
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of age by that point and had kept asking him. She was old enough to make her own
decisions.
When Tina got off the plane she recognized her mother right away and they
hugged and kissed and she kept on saying, “my baby, my baby.” It was very emotional
and good. However, the good feelings were short lived because within two weeks they
drinking heavily and having violent arguments. Tina’s mother started calling her a
whore. Less than a month after she arrived in Florida, Tina called her uncle from a motel
in Tallahassee saying that she had to leave. For then next three weeks was allowed to
share the three bedroom house of her uncle while sharing a room with her son, Brad, and
her daughter, Traci, slept in another room. Pretty soon those arrangements broke down
as well because she would work a day or two and then lose her job. She was also running
up hundreds of dollars of phone bills and not been paying for them. In fact she was not
earning enough o pay for any household bills. The final straw came when Butcher signed
the $500 note engaging her to buy a 1969 Plymouth Valiant for work. She promised to
make the $45 monthly payments but never did and one Sunday she left her uncle’s house
with her child and the car, never to come back. He ended up paying all but $45 on the
car. She made one payment. He felt strongly that when you first meet her she’s a nice
person but then she will do a number on you and overall she was bad news.
By January of 1979 Tina still living in Florida and was haunted by her break up
with James Gillen. She was drifting from one relationship to another. Luther Stewart, a
39-year old owner of Stewart’s Seafood and Steak House in St. Augustine, was one of
her boyfriends when she worked there for several weeks as a waitress. Stewart
considered himself a number one playboy and knew that she was a good time girl who
preferred rich men. She liked money and she wanted somebody to spend money on her.
When she wouldn’t they went their separate ways. Stewart introduced her to James E.
Marco who would become her fourth husband. Marco was a 47 years old widower who
was part owner of a nearby Tavern, the Slipped Disk, who also had been a plumber.
Stewart was the one who put them together because he wanted to get rid of her. He
noticed that first night that Marco left her $100 in tip and that’s all it took.
James Marco used to come into the restaurant and sit alone and eat and Tina felt
sorry for him however she was not attracted to him but when he used to leave her these
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big tips and never spoke to her and never made a pass at her she began to feel guilty.
Soon she introduced herself and the two started dating not long after that Tina asked him
to be godfather to her children.
On August 3, 1978, James Marco took her to a jewelry store and told her to pick
out an engagement ring. She selected a gold braided ring in the shape of a butterfly with
20 to 30 diamonds on it. That day after dinner and drinks they were married by a justice
of the peace in a small town just over the Georgia border.
James Marco thought she was a nice person and felt sorry for the kids. He figured
he could make a good life for them all. Their life together didn’t get past the honeymoon.
Marco felt that his five-day marriage to Tina was a nightmare. After they were married
they drove to Rhode Island where they left Tina’s children with her sister an then drove
on to Ellenville, New York to spend the honey moon on a mountain type condominium.
They stated there all night and the place was stocked with food and liquor. They
started drinking. Tina was to claim later that James Marco pulled a .45 magnum on her,
however, James Marco insisted that she was the world’s biggest liar and that after they
had an argument she packed up the two children and drove back to St. Augustine. Marco
knew that something was bothering her during the entire trip. That she looked worried
about something and as soon as they arrived back home Tina left him. She loaded her
two children and their luggage into her dusty Valiant and headed north on Interstate 95.
She drove all night and before she new it she was in Towson. At first she applied
for a waitress job at the Iron Horse Restaurant in Timonium which was owned by Bill
Pellington, a former Baltimore Colt football player who had known Gillen, her third
husband. There were no job openings, however, a close friend of Pellington’s helped her
with her finances by buying the butterfly diamond engagement ring that James Marco
had given her and he also helped her settle in the Westbury Apartments in Reisterstown.
Frank Watkins, her new benefactor, liked her and felt sorry for her kids, however, he was
soon to learn. She used to go over to his apartment and say I need this or I need that and
get him to help with the child rearing. He soon told her to go back to where her relatives
could help her.
Tina found work as a cocktail waitress on the 6 to 2 p.m. shift at Cal Bittner’s
restaurant in Finksburg. After work she often went to Reisterstown and shopped at the
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Pantry Pride store across the street from her apartment. There she met a tall muscular
man with blond hair who mopped floors and stocked shelves. She liked his looks. They
had a brief intimate relationship and then ever stronger “brother and sister bond.”
In October Tina lost her job at Cal Bittners so she found work at the restaurant
next door, the Branding Iron. David Berquist, the owner, hired Tina as a waitress
because she appeared very sweet, very quiet, and very demure but within ten days he
knew he made a mistake after watching her flirt with the customers and at that point it
had become pretty obvious that she was selling a little more cocktails and meals.
Her low self-esteem created a great deal of turmoil for her and no amount of
praise seemed to help. She was small child with a shock of auburn hair and a spade of
freckles across her nose. Her life becomes marked by her craving for her and attention.
She learned that at a very early age she could get attention by doing something wrong and
she felt that if she did something right she never got attention, it was only if she’d done
something wrong and she did get a lot of attention but it was all negative.
At times she would get belligerent and talk back to teachers. She’d steal things
and wouldn’t return books and pencils and just would not conform to rules and
regulations.
The counselors at the school had nothing but problems with her. She always
wanted to be the center of attention in everything. She also stole books, lipsticks, purses
and money from other students and she was caught shoplifting from neighborhood stores.
Once she stole a set of clothes from a K-Mart store when she was 11 or 12 she stole
eighteen rings from a boy’s market store near school. However, whenever Marco got
caught doing something she would bat her eyelashes and talk her way out of trouble. She
could have most people convinced after a few minutes.
A lot of the kids at school teased her because she had had holes in them and the
clothes were outgrown. Consequently, she was miserable and used their poverty as an
excuse for stealing.
The kinds at school teased her and because of this, she felt like an ugly child with
lots of freckles. She was miserable and an outcast.
It would seem as though Tina would do anything to get attention. Things did not
change when she enrolled in Montclair School in 1963 where the high school guidance
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counsel felt that she didn’t have any social science at all in that there was never any
thought that her actions or behavior might cause harm to someone else. On several
occasions when she was caught stealing she was brought to the principal’s office and
while she could never explain why she stole anything she would simply say I’m never
going to do anything like that again and I’ve learned my lesson and then she’d walk out
the door and do it again.
It was felt that she continued to steal in high school because she still was not
accepted by the other students. Even though she tried everything to make them like her
including taking her mother’s jewelry to school and giving it away just so the other kids
would like her. She would do the other kids homework.
Tina contented herself with fantasy and dreamt that one day she would leave
California, with its unhappy memories and go to Las Vegas and it’s lavished lifestyle.
She began signing her homework papers with the name Sabrina which is the name she
wanted to take when she became a Chorus girl in Las Vegas.
Her stepmother did not know how to handle Tina who at about the age of six kept
repeating that she was going to be a stripper. The adults kind of shrugged it off thinking
it was a joke however Tina was determined.
Tina had a way of always charming people and making it appears though she was
innocent. Her eyes were clear and pretty and when you looked at them you just wanted
to believe anything she said.
However, anybody that tried to get close to her. Those are the ones she took
advantage of. Anyone who ever did anything for her she would take them in.
When she was 14 Tina was placed in the San Bernadino Juvenile Home by police
for stealing at school and for running away from home.
Tina recalled going home and receiving a spanking from her father who then told
her to go put her shoes on and say goodbye to Gay because she wasn’t coming home. He
then went out to the garage for a minute and when he came back in he had ropes and tied
her hands behind her back and bought the rope down and tied her feet and threw her in
the car. Butcher turned the radio and never said a word the entire way. When they got to
Juvenile Hall he took her inside a glass door and there was woman there and he said
“here you raise her” and he just walked out the door. The young Tina was untied and
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placed in a room and went over to the window and saw her father driving away. She
credit for him to come back and promised she never he had again but he just kept going.
Tina was vindictive on the stand. She said “he thinks he’s so smart, I’ll fix his
wagon” she wrote in yet another letter to her friend. Tears come briefly to the woman
when asked to identify a picture of herself wearing a wedding gown in which she married
Myers. On the back she had written “Dear God, please bless this forthcoming marriage
until death do us part. I love this man amen.” There was an emotional outburst
proceeded by laughter in the courtroom when I asked whether or not she was married in
the white dress eh said “no, it was off white.” And I repeated “off white, ugh huh.”
A second Garrett County Jail inmate testified the he overheard Myers and
Chadderton discussing the murder while they were staying at the jail in the spring.
Chadderton said “you better tell that bitch to keep her mouth shut or she’ll get herself
hung.” 21 year old thief Terry Romano testified. He said Myers nearly nodded during
that part of the conversation and Romano offered his rendition of Chadderton description
of the murder. “The way he took care of her was Bobby and Tina were supposed to have
left the State and Chadderton went up to the victim house and asked when Bobby was
and she explained “ Romano testified.
“She turned up and went upstairs to make her bed and he turned up and followed
her and took a pistol and shot her once and she said my God you’re going to kill me and
he said if you know the lord you’d better start praying and then he emptied the gun”
Romano testified.
Garrett County acting sheriff’s suspended one of the jail guards dispatchers
because of his alleged over friendliness with Tina Marco while she was incarcerated in
the Garrett County Jail. Roger White, 24, was suspended pending an investigation.
While who was married and had been working shifts as jailer and dispatcher in
the Garrett County facility for a year and a half refused to agree or disagree. Tina reading
from the letter she wrote from jail testified that White just started flirting.
Jay Gillen stated that Tina married Lee Hazelwood in a Mexican ceremony in the
late 60’s. The marriage was later ruled invalid because the couple never properly
registered in California where they were living at the time. Gillen also explained how she
had a baby in April of 1973 which he believed was his and then she later gave it up for
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adoption. Gillen said Tina gave the baby to an adoption agency because she did not do
an adequate job with the two that she had.
DANIEL CHADDERTON
According to Tina Chadderton told her he waited outside the house as Mary Ruth
spoke on the telephone. He did not want to enter until all the lights were off, and when
they were he forced his way through the front door. Chadderton sat down on the could
once he was inside and lit a cigarette. The victim entered the room and said “Bob is that
you.”
Chadderton replied that he was a friend of Myers and asked to show him through
the house. She agreed and took him to the rooms and when they arrived in the den
Chadderton allegedly took out his knife and pried open the gun cabinet taking out a rifle
and pistol and loading them both. He then ordered the victim in the bedroom and told her
to lie face down on the bed. When she asked him what he was doing Chadderton replied
her husband owed him money. She asked how much. Chadderton said “don’t worry I’ll
get it” and then he shot her in the back with the rifle. Still alive she screamed “My God,
you’re going to kill me” and then Chadderton emptied 8 more rounds from the pistol into
her chest.
When Chadderton’s lawyer, Orrin Brown, described Tina he told the jurors do
you know a black widow spider mates and then she kills. She wants to kill her husband
and then she wants to Kill Dan Chadderton. Eluding to the deal penalty the men faced if
convicted.
Dan Chadderton returned to Garrett County 15 miles west of his birthplace to
stand trial for first-degree murder. Residents of tiny Kitzmiller an incorporated town
with a population of about 440 in the cold rich amounts of Royal Garrett along the West
Virginia Border. Most of the children growing up moved to Baltimore to work because
there is no work or little work in Garrett County. They seldom return.
The town has nearly 100 homes which to cling to the west bank of a mountain
local’s call the backbone. The homes are painted drab shades of green and the town
looks anything put prosperous. All day long _________ covered dump trucks laid with
coal roar through the town to dump their cargo at the train depot where the black fuel is
loaded in open train cards and shipped off for use in places like Baltimore. Dust from
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trucks and stirred up from the chessy system train seems to cover everything that stays in
one place too long. Exhaust fumes cast a pall that reduces visibility.
In the first case in Carroll County history in which the death penalty was being
sought Chadderton was a native son returned to face sensational murder charges.
Investigators pursued this muscular 6 foot 4 inch man with blond hair and
tattooed arms who enjoyed riding motor bikes.
It took only two days to select Chadderton’s jury.
Mr. Chadderton’s wife, Sherrie, was present for the jury selection and sat through
the pre-trial hearings which began the third week of March.
Chaddertons grandmother lived right down the street who was understandably
unnerved by the prospect of this trial.
Orrin Brown during a bail hearing told Judge Burns that while Chadderton had
joined the military he had been dismissed from the Army in 1967 because he could not
kill.
The Chadderton family was well known and a large once since Chadderton’s
deceased father apparently had several sets of offspring’s. Chadderton’s father had
recently committed suicide.
The trial was to be the longest and largest in Circuit Court history (also in Carroll
County history).
The Circuit Court for Garrett County in Oakland had a central courtroom with
only a few rows of benches and chairs winning the pit like area where the prosecution,
defense and jurors will sit.
Judge Frederick Thayer who was balding and energetic and impressive since he
came will versed on legal issues and opinions.
THE HONORABLE LUKE BURNS
Judge Burns had been a candidate for the priest hood, had served year in the Jesuit
seminary as a young man, and had met Father Myers Tobey who was the prison chaplain
who witnessed all the last executions in the Maryland Gas Chamber and gallows. After
the jury convicted Myers Judge Burns was called upon to decide life or death and Father
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Tobey was called as a witness to persuade Judge Burns that life was the appropriate
sentence.
Judge burns listened to the testimony considering whether or not Phil Sutlery had
been working for Mr. Myers the same time he had been working for Tina Myers. Sutley
testified again that he was representing only Tina Myers but Judge Burns on October 7,
1982 said it was clear that Mr. Sutley was representing both Tina and Mr. Myers while
negotiating a deal that could send Mr. Myers to the gas chamber. The judge found that
Sutley had not disclosed my confidential information to the State that would hurt Myers
and that the conduct should be considered by the State Bar Association.
Once the jury had been selected in the large ceremonial courtroom in the old
courthouse in Carroll County we moved to the courthouse annex for the actual trial of the
case. The small courtroom had a tiny office at the end of it and I was allowed to place
my materials in that office. I was given a key to it.
The night before the trial was scheduled I stayed at Lee’s motel and I went over to
the courthouse too emotionally, spiritually, get ready. I had access to the courtroom. I
went into the courtroom and sat in the jury box all on my own, the lights were dim.
While sitting in the jury box I heard a notice near the Judge’s chambers and it was Judge
Burns who came in to the courtroom. It was kind of an odd meeting between the two of
us. He sat around and we chatted for a minute or two and I complained that I thought that
I would request that the defense be allowed to sit closest to the jury as opposed to the
normal tradition of the party who has the burden of proof sitting closest to the jury. The
way the courtroom was set up it was a distinct disadvantage to sit at the defense table
because the witness had to turn all the way around to see the defense attorney’s question
and then respond back to the jury. Whoever designed the courtroom had not had much
practical experience trying cases. In any event I saw it was a distinct disadvantage and I
mentioned to the judge that I thought that I might make that motion the next day. He
indicated that he would be receptive to the motion because it would be prejudicial if the
jurors saw anything on the prosecutor’s table which was just two or three feet away from
changing corners in a fight where the jury box sat.
The next day I made the motion, we went into the chambers and Tom and Frank
were adamant that our seating arrangement should not be moved. I wanted to get Bobby
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over as close to the jury as possible so that they could feel his humanity and be less
inclined to kill him since I was fairly convinced be would be convicted. In chambers the
judge agreed and we walked back into the courtroom and moved. I walked back in first
and moved my files and immediate folders over to the State’s Attorney’s side. Tom
Hickman was furious and I was pleased.
MARYLAND STATE POLICE CORPORAL JAMES LEETE
Corporal James Leete was the principal investigator assigned to the killing and
who long with other state troopers and the state’s attorney’s office doggedly pursued the
trio for almost two years having to maintain the composure and face a great deal of public
criticism for on results the case. Leete was not flamboyant, middle of the road, yet an
excellent and formatible investigator.
As a direct result of the pressures on the participants on the Myers case several of
the participants got divorced. Corporal Leete marriage fell apart as did the marriage of
Tom Hickman.
I had been with my second wife. Victoria Salner Keating, since 1975. We had
been married in 1978. She was an excellent appellate public defender and while we were
not best suited for each other we decided to have a child. Our son Christopher was born
on January 17, 1982. Throughout the trial, which started in September, I stayed at Lee’s
Motel during the week. I rushed back on Friday nights to pick up my daughter, Erin,
from my first wife so I could be with my second wife and baby as much as possible on
the weekends. I had always wanted a son and was determined to be a big part of his life.
Three weeks after the trial in January of 1983 when Chris was 50 weeks old, Victoria
took our baby and left the marital abode. Much to my shock, dismay, and anger my
marriage too had fallen apart partly because the stresses of the Myers case, partly because
Chris’ mother realized in my absence that life was easier without me.
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