Judge: ‘Stocking Strangler’ Carlton Gary denied retrial
A Muscogee County Superior Court judge has denied convicted “Stocking Strangler” Carlton Gary a new trial or new sentencing based on new evidence in the serial killings that terrorized the Wynnton neighborhood of Columbus from September 1977 to April 1978.
Judge Frank J. Jordan Jr. delivered his decision in a 50-page order on Friday, almost three and half years after Gary’s attorney filed motions on the request. Because DNA testing was not available in 1986 when Gary was tried and convicted in three of the the seven cases of rape and strangling of women, a retrial was sought based on the introduction of DNA evidence, secretor evidence work papers, a shoe print and a bite mark mold on a victim’s left breast.
“Based on the foregoing reasons set out herein, the remaining newly admitted evidence, the DNA, secretor work papers, shoe print and bite mark, does not rise to the level of being so material as to probably result in a different sentencing verdict,” Jordan wrote in the order, citing Timberlake vs State.
District Attorney Julia Slater she is pleased with the judge’s decision.
“I think he made a sound legal decision on the case,” she said. “We will be moving forward toward an execution.”
John R. Martin, the attorney for Gary, said he hadn’t read a word in the order but there will be an appeal.
“We are very disappointed in the decision, but we definitely will have an appeal,” Martin said.
The Georgia Supreme Court issued a stay for Gary three hours before his scheduled execution in December 2009 and sent the case back to Muscogee County for hearings on DNA evidence. Prosecutors and defense attorneys in February 2010 agreed to test the evidence deemed most likely to yield the killer’s DNA profile to compare to Gary’s.
Gary was convicted in three of the cases, but prosecutors maintained he committed the acts in all seven cases, including two in which the victims survived. Gertrude Miller, 64, was brutally beaten in her Hood Street home on Sept. 11, 1977. Evidence found on clothing didn’t match Gary, though prosecutors argued the defense could not firmly establish Miller was wearing the clothes during the attack.
In the Jean Dimenstein murder, tests matched Gary’s DNA to the murder but not to Martha Thurmond. Dimenstein was found raped and strangled with a stocking in her home at 3027 21st St. Her body was left covered in with sheets and a pillow.
With the conflicting DNA results, Gary’s attorneys described the Dimenstein semen as a messy sample, but prosecutors countered the evidence was more reliable than samples from Miller’s clothes. Evidence from the scene showed the strangler was a “nonsecretor,” a person that doesn’t secrete blood-type markers in bodily fluids such as semen.
Staff writer Tim Chitwood contributed to this story.
Here are the nine Columbus cases:
On Sept. 11, 1977, Gertrude Miller, 64, was brutally beaten with a board and raped in her 2703 Hood St. home. The assailant, who climbed in through her bedroom window, left behind three stockings he took from her dresser and knotted. Gary lived about two blocks away. Authorities later decided Miller was the first victim of the “Stocking Strangler,” so called because he so often used stockings to strangle women to death. The ritual serial killer also left his victims’ bodies covered.
On Sept. 16, 1977, Mary Willis “Fern” Jackson, 59, of 2505 17th St., was found brutally beaten, raped and strangled with a stocking and sash. Her body was left covered. Her stolen car was later found on Benner Avenue near Fisk Avenue.
On Sept. 24, 1977, Jean Dimenstein, 71, was found raped and strangled with a stocking in her home that then had the address 3027 21st St. (the street has since been renamed). Her body was left covered with sheets and a pillow.
On Oct. 21, 1977, Florence Scheible, 89, was found raped and strangled with a stocking in her 1941 Dimon St. home, which now has a different address. Her body was left covered. Gary’s right thumbprint was found on a door frame leading into Scheible’s bedroom.
On Oct. 25, 1977, Martha Thurmond, 70, was found raped and strangled with a stocking in her 2614 Marion St. home. Her body was covered by a pillow, blankets and sheets. Gary’s fingerprint was found on the frame of a rear bedroom window.
On Dec. 28, 1977, Kathleen Woodruff, 74, was found raped and strangled in her 1811 Buena Vista Road home, which later was demolished during an Aflac expansion. Gary’s fingerprint was found on the aluminum window screen where the intruder entered, and his palm print on the windowsill inside.
On Feb. 11, 1978, Ruth Schwob, 74, of 1800 Carter Ave., was nearly strangled to death by an intruder she fought off, pressing a panic alarm by her bed. Police found her sitting on the edge of her bed, gasping, a stocking wrapped around her neck.
On Feb. 12, 1978, Mildred Borom, 78, 1612 Forest Ave., about two blocks from Schwob’s home, was found raped and strangled with a cord cut from window blinds. Her body was covered with a dress.
On April 20, 1978, Janet Cofer, 61, of 3783 Steam Mill Road, was found raped and strangled with a stocking. A pillow covered her face.
This story was originally published September 1, 2017 at 9:13 PM with the headline "Judge: ‘Stocking Strangler’ Carlton Gary denied retrial."