Posted on 05/08/2008 8:05:14 AM PDT by Corin Stormhands
A Giles County man paroled from prison after serving 14 years for killing two hikers on the Appalachian Trail in 1981 now is suspected of shooting two campers just off the trail in Giles on Tuesday.
Randall Lee Smith, 54, was in a Roanoke hospital yesterday after crashing a pickup truck in Giles, Sgt. Michael Conroy of the Virginia State Police said.
(Excerpt) Read more at inrich.com ...
SW Virginia Ping
The only thing that works is the death penalties. Killers almost always kill again. They kill somebody in jail, or they kill somebody as soon as they get out.
Prevent recidivism. Support the death penalty. Save (innocent) lives.
14 years for two murders ?
Why in heaven’s name wasn’t this man executed or put away for life? What is wrong with our judicial system?
I used to pass through the area all the time, Married a Princeton WV. girl.
Giles county the biggest speed trap on rt 460.
Prevent recidivism. Support the death penalty. Carry a weapon and use it!
Chattanooga: Hikers packing concealed heat
"384 incidents including killings, rapes, robberies, kidnappings and aggravated assaults occurred in national parks in 2006, according to the National Park Service."
Liberals are against defending yourself from bandits in national parks and are fighting against a bill in Congress that will allow you to do so.
These are the same people who let a double murderer out of prison after 14 years for his crimes that occurred in a national park.
When it comes to your very life, never compromise with a liberal.
Hate to disagree but most people murder out of rage at an individual, the so called crime of passion. Most won’t repeat unless exposed to a very simmilar situation. Some are serial killers who get off on it, this guy sounds like one of them.
Exactly.
But even if he had been in jail for life, I bet he would have killed somebody else (such as a guard or a more vulnerable prisoner).
Capital offenses should be punished with short life sentences. Imprisonment shouldn’t last longer than 6 months.
Probably a rabid environmentalist who doesn’t like people sullying his precious trail.
I suspect you've met Trooper Allen. I've had a few conversations with him myself.
Nope. Lunatic. Always has been
That is a very bold statement. Do you want to back it up with some facts?
That is why life sentences should be solitary and short.
How was his crime a crime of passion? A crime of passion usually results in the a very mitigated charge, btw; somebody who gets in a fight with his buddy and knocks him off his bar stool with the result that the buddy hits his head and dies is never judged by the same standard as a person who randomly kills people unknown to him (or kills them in the commission of a crime).
This guy’s first murder was of two hikers who were actually hiking to collect money for a charity. They were from Maine, and he did not know them and it was not a crime of passion.
According to various internet sites (google “Randall Lee Smith”, “Appalachian Trail” ) he “pleaded guilty to lesser charges”, so he probably was never convicted of the murders he did.
Damn.
Good idea! Then it’s over and out...
It's also a very wrong statement. Additional sources tell me that he spent some time chatting with them around a campfire (also suspected in the 1981 murders, but I don't believe confirmed). He met them on the trail.
This was cold and calculated. I suspect he went there knowing exactly what he was going to do, and didn't care who the victims were.
Don’t have anything for you, but that it is well known in the Law Enforcement/Forensics community.
It’s just a shame we can’t get the killers in national parks together on the same trails at the same time with the politicians who ban guns in national parks ...
I vaguely remember hearing about this when I was in high school...I grew up over the mountains in Amherst but we got the TV stations out of Roanoke and they were all over the murders.
Texans say it best...”there’s some folks that just need killin’.” This guy is one of ‘em.
}:-)4
And the Parole Board members aren’t asked a word about why they felt it was safe to release him.
I think this was during a period when the prosecutors felt that getting a serious first degree murder conviction would be difficult, and there was the unfortunate tendency to let a lot of people plea out.
_______
Because convictions for first degree murder still require evidence. From the linked article:
With no clear motive for the killing and what then-Commonwealth's Attorney Hezekiah Osborne called scant physical evidence, Smith accepted a plea agreement that reduced his charges to second-degree murder
Agreed, he’s a psycho, I stated that MOST murders are of someone known, a crime of passion.
Well, the AT is kind of a special case because it spans so many states, and most of its length is actually not inside national parks. In Virginia it’s on National Forest land more than inside National Parks, and AFAIK guns are legal inside the national forests—my friends and family hunted in the George Washington National Forest all the time. The problem you run into with the AT isn’t just national park regulations, but state regulations on the lands outside the parks. In Virginia, you’re much more likely to be seen favorably if you have to defend yourself on the AT than in, say, Maryland.
}:-)4
Naw. Nuthin' like that.
Guns aren't allowed on the Trail (National Park land), so it's "safe". Just ask any Liberal who wants to prevent honest concealed carrying citizens from legally carrying a weapon.
The fact a convicted murderer had a gun and was wandering the Trail hunting for new victims doesn't mean private citizens should be allowed to carry them in self defense. Better to keep those rules in place to prevent Wild West shootouts or mass slaughter of Bambi and Smokey.
After all, we are constantly reminded by the Liberals and the National Park Service Phoobahs that the Parks are "safe". So, they must be!
Looks more like they had a weak case and took a sure 14 years. Damn.
My memories fuzzy, but I remember the plea bargain pissing off the locals.
He actually wrote a murder note in 1981 along the lines of “I like these people and I hate that I am going to have to do this to them”.
From the original article:
“Yesterday, authorities closed a 25-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail from Pearisburg to state Route 606 in Bland. Roger Holnback, head of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club, which maintains 136 miles of the trail, said volunteers were shuttling hikers around the closed area.
“I just hope this doesn’t reflect bad on the trail,” Holnback said. “It was quite traumatic and sad news, and when something happens in proximity to the trail, people start to think it’s unsafe.”
Unsafe? Ya think?
The legal system is just that a system. Our septic system got clogged once and we had it pumped out. Seems the citizens should take the hint and clean the ‘legal’ system.
Regards, TL
Yep - It kept him from killing any innocents for 14 years. Just for the record the guy is a PSYCHO, serial killer. Rather atypical.
A year ago, my son’s Scout troop camped in the Dismal area at Walnut Flats.
Just two years prior to his release, then Governor George Allen lead the charge for the abolishment of parole. But it didn't apply retroactively.
The crime of passion murderers you are talking about are never charged with capital murder.
Your memory is much better than mine.
But IIRC Hez Osborne lost his next race.
Good point, shame this huy copped a plea. Bigger shame he didn’t die in prison.
I agree. There were obviously no witnesses, and they probably thought - at that particular time - that this was the safest way to get him locked up at least for awhile.
Yep. It seems to me that people who kill strangers, kill in the commission of another crime, kill in a particularly cruel fashion, or are obsessive about a spouse are all likely to have a pathology which suggests they will kill again. They should either be executed or kept locked away.
So what penalty will he get this time? Fifteen minutes in time out?
Nope, thanks to George Allen, there’s no more parole.
If killing two people in cold blood is only worth 14 years, then shooting two more ought to get him at least another 5-7 years. Hikers in VA can sleep well tonight (sarc)
I remember like it was yesterday the interview Ted Coppel had on Nightline back during the Rodney King riot days. He interviewed a gangbanger that went "straight". He was impressed with the perps intellectual acumen for being a gang leader. This ganger was about 40 some odd years old. When Coppel asked what he went to prison for, he, of course, offered up a laundry list, but finally settled on "murder". When Coppel asked how many people he killed, the perp sat there a moment as if gathering his thoughts and came up with the number "19".
My jaw hit the ground. What the hell is this guy doing still breathing, let alone out on parole. Apparently if you kill the "right" people, nobody cares. He was convicted and received typical sentences of 7-8 years and got out in 3, for "good behavior". If you shoot blacks, Hispanics, or other gang members, you get some sort of break in LA courts. I have to wonder what the sentencing phase sounded like when his rap sheet was brought out. After about 3 manslaughter convictions and a couple of murder convictions, not even counting the assaults with deadly weapons and attempted murder charges, you would think they might get this guy out of circulation.
Your statement is not exactly true. True, most murders are committed by someone who knew the victim, but most are not crimes of passion, as you put it. If most murders were done in the heat of anger then the liberals who claim carrying a gun by ordinary citizens would result in a blood bath would be true, but the facts in shall carry states refute that, the opposite is true, murders actually decrease.
Most murders are committed with a motive in mind, getting uncle's money, killing the husband or wife so they can be with a new partner(and keep the money too), killing the kids simply because you don't want them around any more, etc. Those are your most common murders. These people, along with psychopaths such as the one in this article, should all be put to death for their crimes.
How did he dodge the needle last time? We’re usually pretty good about solving problems like this.
I doubt if he will get out this time. We tend to throw the book at nutjobs here anymore since Virginia Tech. He will get 5 years for using a gun in a felony(mandatory) and the other two charges will be attempted murder, maybe attempted capital murder.
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