Published: July 18, 2008 10:25 am            

Eaves a free man — Plea deal leaves shooting suspect out on bond

PRINCETON — The man accused of ordering Jerome Flack’s murder walked away from Mercer County Courthouse Thursday essentially a free man.

Kenneth Dwayne Eaves, 20, of Bluefield, pleaded guilty to an information that charged him with attempting to commit a felony, and he got out of jail. Circuit Court Judge William Sadler tentatively accepted the plea agreement and handed down a $2,000 personal recognizance bond for the man who had remained in custody on first-degree murder charges since Feb. 6.

Eaves was one of two defendants charged with shooting William Jerome Flack, 28, on the crowded dance floor of Pucker’s Sports Bar and Country Palace in the early morning hours of Dec. 14, 2007. Witnesses reportedly attempted to save Flack’s life by performing CPR until emergency crews arrived, but he was pronounced dead later that morning at Bluefield Regional Medical Center.

Though there were estimated to be 250-300 people in the Green Valley bar at the time of the fatal shooting, witnesses were hard to come by as the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department and Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force began the investigation.

It was early 2008 before Mercer County Sheriff’s Department Det. L.B. Murphy announced he was charging Eaves and Mario Creed Goodson with the homicide. According to information Murphy released at that time and reaffirmed during a preliminary hearing, witnesses reported seeing Eaves, Goodson and Flack involved in an altercation on the dance floor. Reports then revealed some witnesses allegedly heard Eaves give Goodson the order to kill Flack.

Goodson then allegedly pulled a gun from the waistband of his pants and fired the fatal shots into Flack, who immediately collapsed on the dance floor.

Pandemonium broke out at the club, as frightened patrons fled the scene, fights broke out, and officers from nearly every law enforcement agency in the area responded in an attempt to restore order.

Eaves, who reportedly fled to Atlanta in the aftermath of the shooting returned to Bluefield in early February and turned himself in after learning there was a warrant for his arrest.

Given the volatility of the case, Sadler had ordered Eaves held without bond in the Southern Regional Jail, pending trial.

The 1:30 p.m. hearing Thursday was slated as another bond motions hearing, but instead, defense counsel David White and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ash announced they had reached a plea agreement.

According to White’s interpretation, the deal required Eaves to plead to the information that accused him of attempting to commit a felony — conspiracy to murder. In return, White said the state agreed to dismiss all other charges — first-degree murder and conspiracy.

An information is slightly different from a typical plea agreement. Although defendants may not be tried until a grand jury has reviewed their cases and deemed the evidence sound enough to warrant trial, defendants may waive the right to a grand jury review and plead to the “information,” rather than the indictment. Essentially, a defendant who pleads to an information confirms that the evidence would likely result in a trial and conviction. It simply shortens the judicial process.

White told the court his client, who dropped out of school after 10th grade, understood the gravity of the agreement.

“Mr. Eaves knows he will have a conviction of a felony on his record ...” White said. “He’s cognizant of that.”

White termed the plea a “best interest” plea, arguing that it was not an admission of guilt, simply an acceptance that it would be in his client’s best interest to reach the agreement.

As Sadler reviewed Eaves’ rights before tentatively accepting the plea bargain, the two sides of the courtroom gallery were deeply divided, as with near-equal numbers of supporters lining benches on the defense and state sides of the court.

Flack’s mother, Tammy Flack Slaughter and stepfather, Forrest, clutched a photo of Flack in his casket and a letter they believe proves someone knowingly allowed Goodson to enter the club with a gun. Through tears, Slaughter held out the photo of her deceased son and said, “That’s not an attempt to commit a felony. That’s a felony. My son’s dead,” she said.

Her agitation only grew upon hearing the sentence recommended by both the state and defense was a maximum of six months and one day.

“He’s a free man,” Tammy Slaughter whispered before leaving the courtroom with many of the Flack family members.

In fact, Eaves has served roughly five months, and he asked that the court proceed with sentencing Thursday. Sadler declined, however, citing a desire to hear from the Flack family before handing down a final sentence.

Slaughter had expressed a desire to speak and urge Sadler not to accept the plea agreement, but after the hearing, she said she had to leave the courtroom to compose herself and escape alleged taunting from other witnesses in the courtroom.

“He’s a free man. He can get up and go anywhere he wants to go. My son can’t get up from here,” she said, pointing to the funeral photo.

The hardest part to accept, Slaughter said, was that a motive for her son’s death has never been identified.

“They still have no reason why they killed Jerome. They just didn’t like him,” she said.

And, from her perspective, a six-month sentence sends the wrong message to the public and other people potentially tied to the case.

“It tells them it’s OK to kill my son,” Slaughter said.

Her husband said the result of Thursday’s hearing offered no resolution for his family.

“This doesn’t make sense. If it was one of us, we’d be on trial for murder, and it’d be our lives on the line,” Forrest Slaughter said. “There’s no justice in the system. The system has denied us justice.”

Although Eaves left the court free on bond Thursday, his sentence is still not officially complete. Sadler set a sentencing hearing for Aug. 4, at which time, he will hear from family members and hand down a ruling.

Goodson, the alleged shooter, reportedly remains in solitary confinement at the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, and the Flack family stands steadfast in their belief that there are still other suspects that were involved in the fatal shooting.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

        

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