Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney
Tom Plymale is promising an appeal on this week’s decision from Senior
Status Judge James Holliday to dismiss charges against a man who
plead guilty in 1989 to killing his ex-girlfriend and injuring two men a year
earlier.
A new trial for Stephen Hatfield,
who has been in prison since then, had been scheduled to be begin as early as
this month.
When he was granted that new trial
in 2012, a federal judge questioned whether Hatfield’s competency had been
adequately determined prior to his plea. In his order this week,
Holliday said trying to address competency now would be too difficult because
of the amount of time that has passed.
Plymale said he plans on
arguing as much in an appeal he’ll file with the state Supreme Court “as soon
as possible.” “At this point, we still have eyewitnesses available and
willing to testify, so we can go forward,” he said when asked about the
challenges of going to trial with a murder case more than 25 years after the
fact.
Hatfield has been serving a life
sentence for killing his ex-girlfriend, Tracey Andrews, and wounding her
new boyfriend, Dewey Meyers, along with Roger Cox. The shootings happened
during a crime spree in May 1988 that crossed state lines and included a
shootout with police near Huntington
His release from Mount Olive Correctional
Complex is being delayed to allow time for the appeal.
