I wont show her face due to the subject matter.

So things were going along well, until one day there was a knock on the door. Turns out it was a WV State Trooper.  He had some paperwork in his hands and wanted to talk to my girlfriend.  How he found her living with me I don't know, but I knew this couldn't be good.  I went into another room to let them talk, and the Trooper left. "What was that all about?" I said.  She proceeded to tell me a story that I couldn't believe....

Meet Harold Douglas Gunnoe.

My girlfriend, we'll call her "Mia" told me the story of a murder that she was somehow involved in.  Before Mia met me, she had met another guy named Harold Gunnoe at Shoney's.  He was a regular customer and like me, he wanted to know Mia better. He asked her out again and again, but she refused. She told me that she simply didn't like his looks or manners.  But Gunnoe went behind her to her co-workers and convinced them to ask Mia to go out with him. Before I go further, let me say this: The judge at his trial stated that "Gunnoe could talk the birds out of the trees".  This he could. He was a real flim-flam man.  So Gunnoe kept after Mia and even her co-workers told her that she should go out with him. Finally, weeks later and after a late night shift at Shoney's, Mia was about to leave when in walks Gunnoe.  Once again he said "Come-on... let's just go out for a quick drink".  Mia was very tired and had a long trip ahead of her to get back home so she finally relented and went with Gunnoe.  They drove to the "Wagon Wheel" in Cross Lanes and was there until probably 3 in the morning.  At that point it's a little fuzzy as to what exactly happened next, but they wound-up at the Sunset motel on Sissonville road.

Mia was very young, a teenager, very gullible, and very stupid at that time.  Gunnoe promised that there would be no hanky-panky and all everyone wanted to do was get some sleep.  Turns out that Gunnoe didn't sleep all night. He mostly stood around with his clothes on looking out the window.  Around 6am Mia woke up and told Gunnoe to take her back to her car at Shoney's.  This he did, but on the way there he asked where exactly did she live.  Once again, being gullible, she told him.....

Mia was living with her mother, father, and little sister in southern WV.  It was summer, so school was out and Mia's mother and sister were home along with Mia herself.  Dad was at work. They got a knock on the door and it's Gunnoe. He had told Mia previously that he was a heavy equipment salesman, and on this morning he was traveling to Kentucky to wrap-up a sale, and since Mia's house was on the way, he'd just stop to say hello.  Only one problem: It was about 11am and by 1pm he was still there.  He then told Mia that he could finish the sale later and convinced her to go to the movies in Huntington.  They got about halfway when Mia changed her mind and said she wanted to go back home. They turned around and did just that. The day wore on that Gunnoe is still there with 3 females alone.  The mother told Mia that he HAD TO GO. Finally around 5:30 Mia's father came home from work in Charleston.  He was a short guy but built like Charles Atlas.  He lifted weights daily. At this point Gunnoe left, and due to this unwelcome stay he was never attached to Mia again.  Oh sure, he saw her in Shoney's and tried to get her to go out with him again, but she refused. Lucky her....

So now we are back where we started. Months had passed and now Mia was staying with me when the Trooper showed up.

It turns out that Harold Douglass Gunnoe had been arrested, and during that arrest he confessed to killing a woman named Veronica Blanton, a counselor who Gunnoe met in a substance abuse program.  She lived in Winfield WV and that's where Gunnoe murdered her with a knife, and (as I heard it) took her car for the next week or so and was stopped near Cross Lanes WV for some infraction, but he also had a warrant for worthless checks. This is where the legal system broke down and caused the murder of ANOTHER woman not too long after.

REFRESHER

Backing up again, here's what happened when the Trooper came to my house:  He told Mia that he had a  subpoena for her to appear in the murder trial of the man she spent the night and following day with, Harold Douglas Gunnoe.  (this was when I learned that my girlfriend was involved in a murder.  Most men would have cut and run right then).  How was Mia involved?  Remember when they had their first date and spent the night in the motel with Gunnoe never going to bed and looking out the window for the next 3 hours? That was the SAME night that he murdered Veronica Blanton and left her lifeless body in her house.  Gunnoe didn't want sex. He was too nervous. What he wanted was an alibi. He needed for people to see him both in public and privately to prove where he was all night, and he chose Mia as his main  alibi.  And think about this:  He spent  most of the following day with  three females all alone deep in the countryside with no nearby houses!   He could have murdered all 3 and no one would have found their lifeless bodies until after 5pm.   So why didn't he?  He'd already murdered one woman.  Maybe that was enough for awhile.  Plus, his alibi was more important right now.   Those women had NO idea how close they came to being murdered!  But they wouldn't have been the last...

THE TRIAL



The Putnam County Courthouse.

Both Mia and myself sat on the front row of the courtroom, starring at Gunnoe as he took the stand. He stared back. The trial wasn't that long and Gunnoe, with all the evidence stacked against him, including Mia's testimony was found guilty of murder. He got life without mercy. Well,  I'm glad that's over......  or was it?

A few years later while working as a lieutenant on the local fire dept, we got called to a trash fire behind some apartment houses. It was night, and I was in charge of the Engine.  As I'm watching my gauges, some crazy man come running out of the darkness yelling about the guy who had set the trash cans on fire and was trying to burn down his house.  The only light in my area was a street light overhead, and as the man came closer, I just about flipped out!  It was Harold Douglas Gunnoe!   Had to be!   So I asked him... what is your name?  "Harold Gunnoe" he said.  "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"  I screamed.  He had no idea why I was talking to him that way, because I was in full battle dress with my helmet etc he just didn't recognize that fact that it was my girlfriend who helped but him away. But now he was back.  What the hell happened?  Why is he out here living a block from where Mia works?  I should also mention that Mia is now my wife.  Yes, I married the girl who was a star witness in a murder trial.  Go figure.

That same night when I got back to the fire house,  I called the work release place which just happened to be a block away. This was a program that was the first in the U. S. where criminals transited from prison to the world of tax paying citizens.  The idea was to allow them to get jobs and ease they way back into society, but for awhile, they had to return to the Work Release building every day.  After that, they could then rent a place to live while still reporting to the work release building. I called them up: "Do you have Harold Douglas Gunnoe on work release?"  Yes they said.  "How in the hell is that even possible!  He got life without mercy!"  Turns out there was some sort of screw up as he was being arrested and he managed to get his conviction overturned.  So here he is... again.  Living close to where my wife works and free as a bird.

This photo was taken from a video of Gunnoe when he was on work release and working for Husson's Pizza, delivering food.  John Walsh of the famous "America's Most Wanted" featured Gunnoe on his program concerning murderers that have gone free and is now out in the public. That video is on YouTube, and you can see the video here:

SO WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Gunnoe, the man who had already murdered one woman murdered again. This time it was a well known woman named Alicia McCormick who worked at the YWCA, and was somewhat sympathetic to people like Gunnoe.  I wont waste my time going through that incident, but have posted it below if you care to read.  This is a classic example of those who say " The death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, and doesn't solve anything".  Actually it does, because Gunnoe isn't the only person who's been let out of prison for murder and went on to murder again.  If I were the family, I would have taken the second murder case to the highest court in the land because it was "the system, the state" that murdered Alicia McCormick, not just Harold Gunnoe...

Alicia McCormick

Alicia began at the YWCA Charleston Resolve Family Abuse Program (RFAP) in April of 1986 as a Counselor and quickly became the Program Director in May of 1988.  In July of 1991 at thirty-two years old and just three brief years after becoming Program Director, Alicia McCormick was found murdered in her Charleston apartment by Harold Gunnoe.

The background of Harold Douglas Gunnoe

In 1991, Gunnoe was serving a five-to-18 year imprisonment sentence for second-degree murder.   Gunnoe had stabbed to death Veronica Blanton, a counselor whom Gunnoe met in a substance abuse program.   Gunnoe pled guilty to second-degree murder after his first-degree murder conviction for Ms. Blanton's death was overturned on the grounds that an illegally obtained confession was used as evidence at his trial.   In addition to the murder of Ms. Blanton, Gunnoe had a substantial record of involvement with the criminal justice system.   In over 15-plus years, in addition to the Blanton murder, Gunnoe had been arrested and charged with forgery, worthless checks, uttering, burglary, breaking and entering, assault with a deadly weapon, grand larceny, resisting arrest, escape and parole violation.   In a number of instances, however, no convictions followed the arrests or charges. On March 28, 1990, after serving about three and one-half years in prison for Ms. Blanton's murder, Gunnoe was transferred by the DOC from the medium security prison at Huttonsville, West Virginia, to the unsecured Charleston Work Release Center. Gunnoe's conduct at the CWRC was poor.   He was removed from his first “inside” job at the CWRC, a maintenance position, for inadequate work.   He quit or was fired from his first “outside” job.   He broke CWRC rules by cashing his first paycheck instead of turning it in.   He was fired from a second outside job. In September, 1990 Gunnoe pled guilty to 16 CWRC disciplinary charges of fraudulent misrepresentation and failure to proceed or return, before a DOC magistrate.   Gunnoe was sentenced to return to Huttonsville, but the sentence was suspended and Gunnoe was given a punishment of “lost privileges” for 30 days. Gunnoe continued to perform poorly.   He failed to attend counseling, failed to turn in his paycheck, and he unlawfully operated a motor vehicle without insurance.   He was fired from a third outside job, and lied about another job.   In May, 1991 he was fired from a fourth outside job-for poor work habits, bad attitude, and refusal to work. In June 1991, Gunnoe was discharged from a fifth outside job, because he “constantly mouthed off, refused work details, refused to work, made inappropriate comments to females, and had a bad attitude with the supervisor.”   On June 5, 1991, DOC staff summarized Gunnoe's history at the CWRC in a memo urging his return to Huttonsville, as a “program failure.” Meanwhile, in March of 1991, Gunnoe and his then-wife had moved into an apartment in Charleston, next door to an apartment building owned by the appellee Smith.  (Apparently the CWRC allowed some inmates who were assigned to the CWRC to reside away from the CWRC, on “furlough” status.)   Smith and Gunnoe spoke, and this conversation led to Gunnoe beginning to perform part-time maintenance work for Smith on several rental properties owned by Smith. Gunnoe and his wife thereafter moved into one of Smith's apartment buildings, agreeing that any work they performed for Smith would go toward their rent.   Gunnoe's wife cleaned some of Smith's vacant apartments, and Gunnoe and his father constructed a retaining wall for Smith. At some point after Smith met and employed Gunnoe, Smith learned that Gunnoe was an inmate at the CWRC, that Gunnoe had been in prison, and that Gunnoe had been convicted of murder.3  According to Smith, Gunnoe told Smith that Gunnoe had killed a man who raped Gunnoe's sister.4 Alicia McCormick was employed as a domestic violence counselor and program director for the YWCA in Charleston.   She ran an anger control group that was frequented by work release inmates.   On about June 7, 1991, Ms. McCormick moved into an apartment at Smith's Green Meadow apartments.  (Green Meadow was not the building where Gunnoe lived.) In the latter part of June, 1991, Gunnoe informed DOC employee Becky Jordan at the CWRC that Gunnoe had met Ms. McCormick “by doing work at her apartment.”   In Ms. Jordan's presence, Gunnoe referred to Ms. McCormick as a “looker.” On about July 2, 1991, Ms. McCormick came to the CWRC to discuss with inmates the relationship between alcohol and violence.   Gunnoe was “hanging out” in the yard, according to Ms. Jordan, and Ms. Jordan and Ms. McCormick stopped to speak with Gunnoe. According to Ms. Jordan, Ms. McCormick thanked Gunnoe for hanging blinds for Ms. McCormick at her apartment, and asked Gunnoe if he could locate an air conditioner for Ms. McCormick's use.   Ms. Jordan described Gunnoe as “flirting” with Ms. McCormick, because he thought “she was good looking.”   Ms. Jordan believed that Gunnoe was deliberately present at the CWRC on that occasion because he knew that Ms. McCormick would be there. On about July 18, 1991, Gunnoe and Smith were at the apartment building where Ms. McCormick lived, and Gunnoe whistled at Ms. McCormick as she came down the stairs.   Smith admonished Gunnoe. On or about July 20, 1991, Gunnoe murdered Ms. McCormick in her apartment, by stabbing her to death with a knife.   Smith had changed the McCormick apartment locks when Ms. McCormick moved in, and she had the only key.   The Charleston police concluded that Gunnoe's entry to the McCormick apartment was not forcible.

WHY WAS HE LET GO FOR THE FIRST MURDER?


Gunnoe after over 40 years in prison.

Harold Gunnoe, was arrested on September 14, 1986, for uttering worthless checks. While in custody, he was questioned for several days regarding the murder of Veronica Blanton, which he denied knowing anything about. On September 19, 1986, law enforcement officers requested that he take a polygraph test. Gunnoe expressed a desire to consult with his attorney before making that decision. The officers contacted his appointed lawyer for the check case, who indicated that he had no objection to Gunnoe being questioned about the murder, provided it did not pertain to the check charges. Gunnoe was informed of this response, signed a waiver of his Miranda rights, and subsequently confessed to the murder. He later sought to suppress his confession, arguing it was involuntary and violated his Fifth Amendment rights. The trial court denied his motion, leading to his conviction for first-degree murder without mercy and a life sentence. Gunnoe appealed, claiming error in the trial court's handling of his confession. The procedural history included a pretrial hearing where the court found the confession admissible. So due to the fact that even after HE CONFESSED to the murder, and the fact that THEY HAD ALL THE EVIDENCE they needed to convict him,  he was turned loose by a few simple words of the law and another woman was murdered. In America, all it takes is a few simple words to allow murderers to go free to kill again.

More to come.... soon.




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