Gretna man’s interview at issue in murder case

RUSTBURG — For more than an hour Tuesday, the recorded interview of a man charged with capital murder in the death of a Lynch Station resident played in a quiet courtroom.

In it, Renauldo Sinclair Oliver, of Gretna, tells an investigator that his co-defendant tackled 69-year-old Wilbur West after knocking on his door and saying the two men had run out of gas.

Oliver said Alphonso Lamont Destin of Altavista, who also faces a capital murder charge, kept yelling, “Shoot him! Shoot him!”

The video interview, recorded by deputies five days after West’s body was discovered last May, was at issue during a hearing in Campbell County Circuit Court.

Oliver’s attorney, David Baugh, argued that the recording should not be admitted as evidence at trial because authorities may have compromised his client’s right to have a lawyer present during questioning.

Judge John Cook has not ruled on the motion, pending briefs from both Baugh and the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office.

Oliver, 24, faces the possibility of execution if convicted on the capital murder charge. He also is charged with burglary, robbery and three firearms counts.

According to testimony in earlier hearings, investigators accused Oliver and Destin of going to West’s Leewood Road home to rob him. Campbell County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Dwayne Wade testified earlier that the men implicated each other: Oliver said Destin pushed West to the ground, which cracked his skull, and Destin said Oliver then shot West in the head.

Tuesday, Baugh questioned why authorities continued to interview Oliver after he asked when he would get a lawyer.

About 10 minutes into the recording, Oliver can be heard asking Investigator Mike Milnor about a lawyer. Milnor replied that a lawyer likely would be appointed during his first court appearance in three days. Oliver then told Milnor that he didn’t want a court-appointed attorney and planned to hire his own.

After that exchange, Oliver went on to describe the shooting, giving three versions of how events unfolded.

First he said Destin grabbed a gun from Oliver and shot West. Then Oliver said that he accidentally pulled the trigger, hitting West, while he and Destin struggled for the gun.

“I couldn’t kill him,” Oliver said in the recording. “I couldn’t. … The gun was in my hands. I guess it was my body. …

“This wasn’t no planned robbery/murder.”

Later in the interview, Wade told Oliver that the gun had to be no more than six inches from West’s throat when it was fired based on the damage. Oliver then said he panicked and pulled the trigger twice.

“I stepped over Mr. West,” Oliver said in the confession. “I didn’t even look at the man. … I walked over him. Pop. Pop. Twice.”

Milnor said: “You stepped over him and fired two shots with Fonzo screaming, ‘Shoot him. Shoot him’?”

Oliver said that when West’s head hit the ground after Destin tackled him, he thought the man was dead.

“Fonzo screaming, ‘Shoot him. Shoot him. That’s all that went through my little brain,” he said in the interview, adding a little later, “I’m not no psychopath. I panicked. I panicked. I had another man yelling in my ear. Yelling.”

Milnor testified that he had given Oliver a polygraph examination two days earlier. He also at that time had read Oliver his Miranda rights and Oliver had signed a form stating he understood them, he said.

Milnor said he again read Oliver his rights when he was arrested, as he sat in the back of a patrol car.

Baugh questioned Milnor about the moments in the recording when Oliver asked about an attorney. He also asked why his client wasn’t handed a copy of his arrest warrant until after the interview.

Milnor said he followed normal procedure.

“He had been Mirandized. He did not ask for an attorney. If he had indicated that he did not want to talk, he would have been taken to the magistrate,” Milnor said.

A definite trial date has not been set.

- Sidener is a staff writer for The News & Advance in Lynchburg.