Attorneys argue evidence in ongoing Carlton Gary case

With the heinous serial killings and rapes now two years shy of their 40th anniversary, attorneys continue to fight over evidence in the "Stocking Stranglings" of 1977 and '78.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors have filed motions related to convicted strangler Carlton Gary's effort to get a new trial based on more recent evidence his Atlanta attorneys say might have led jurors in 1986 to acquit him had it been presented at his trial.

Prosecutors maintain that's unlikely because of the overwhelming evidence of Gary's guilt, which has since been bolstered by a DNA test matching him to one of the rapes and murders. DNA evidence was not available in 1986.

The jury that year convicted Gary in three of the seven stranglings, but prosecutors used the other four along with similar crimes in which Gary was implicated to show his method of committing such offenses.

Gary was to be executed in 2009, but the Georgia Supreme Court issued a stay for DNA testing and sent the case back to Columbus for hearings. Gary since has sought a new trial in Muscogee County Superior Court, where Judge Frank Jordan Jr. held hearings and had attorneys file motions based on the testimony rendered.

Both the defense and the prosecution now have filed those motions.

The court filings are voluminous, so the disputed evidence is summarized here in the chronological order of the crimes cited.

The Farmer case: Gary was living in Albany, N.Y., when 89-year-old Nellie Farmer was raped and strangled on April 14, 1970. His fingerprint was found at the scene, but he accused an accomplice of the homicide. Prosecutors used this as a crime similar to the Columbus stranglings. The defense claims Farmer's assailant cleaned himself at her bathroom sink, leaving shoeprints size 8½ to 9. Gary wears a size 13½.

The Miller case: Soon after Gary moved back to Columbus from New York, 64-year-old Gertrude Miller was raped and beaten in her 2703 Hood St. home on Sept. 11, 1977. Prosecutors claimed this was a precursor to the stranglings that followed, and Miller identified Gary as her rapist during his trial. The defense later sought DNA testing on a gown found in Miller's bedroom, and it yielded a profile that did not match Gary. Prosecutors maintain this is immaterial as nothing proves Miller was wearing the gown when she was assaulted.

The Schwob case: Amid the Columbus serial killings was an attack the victim survived. On Feb. 11, 1978, 74-year-old Ruth Schwob was assaulted in her 1800 Carter Ave. home, where she hit a panic-button alarm that sounded in a neighbor's house. The intruder fled. Prosecutors cited this assault as a similar crime. The defense says that on an air-conditioning unit below a window the assailant climbed into, authorities found a size 10 shoeprint. Again the defense notes Gary wears a size 13½.

The Cofer case: The last "Stocking Stranglings" victim was school teacher Janet Cofer, 61, found raped and strangled in her 3783 Steam Mill Road home on April 19, 1978. Police found an apparent bite mark on her breast that indicated the rapist had a space in his upper teeth and a rotated tooth. The bite was cast in stone. The defense maintains that in 1978, Gary's teeth had no such notable defects, and during hearings witnesses said his teeth were straight and even. Prosecutors say the bite cast was immaterial at the time of Gary's trial because he earlier had dental work on his upper teeth while in prison.

Along with evidence from those individual cases, the defense raises more general issues with Gary's prosecution in 1986.

The blood evidence: A more esoteric matter is testing evidence for blood-type secretions, a crime scene technique that preceded DNA. Semen was tested to determine whether it came from a man who secreted strong or weak evidence of his blood type. At Gary's trial, a lab technician testified the strangler was a "weak or non-secretor," but Gary later was shown to be a strong secretor. The defense says only 20 percent of the population does not secrete blood-type antigens into other bodily fluids.

The fingerprint evidence: The defense claims police could not match crime scene fingerprints to anyone until after Gary's arrest in 1984; investigators neglected to document where fingerprints were found; and at least in one case a print was found in a spot that didn't fit where a burglar's hand would have been.

The "confession": Detectives say the night Gary was arrested in Albany, Ga., and returned to Columbus, he rode with them through Columbus, pointing out homes he had burglarized, including those of strangling victims, whom he claimed an accomplice killed. The police say he would not let them record the conversation or take notes. The defense has challenged these admissions because they were not documented.

The prosecution's motion notes that in addition to other incriminating evidence, Gary's fingerprints were found at the stranglings for which he was convicted and sentenced to death:

Florence Scheible, 89, was found raped and strangled Oct. 21, 1977, in her 1941 Dimon St. home. Gary's right thumbprint was found on a door frame leading into Scheible's bedroom, prosecutors said.

Martha Thurmond, 70, was found raped and strangled Oct. 25, 1977, in her 2614 Marion St. home. Gary's fingerprint was found on the frame of a rear bedroom window, authorities said.

Kathleen Woodruff, 74, was found raped and strangled Dec. 28, 1977, in her 1145 Buena Vista Road home. Gary's right little finger was found on the aluminum window screen where the intruder entered, and his palm print was found on the windowsill just inside, prosecutors said. In this case the defense claims Gary would have had to cross his arms while removing the screen to leave a right-hand fingerprint on the side of the screen where the print was found.

Aside from the evidence used to convict Gary in those three murders, subsequent DNA testing matched him to a case in which he was not convicted: the Sept. 24, 1977, rape and strangling of Jean Dimenstein, 71, of what was then 3027 21st St. (the street has since been renamed). Had that evidence been available to the jury in 1986, it further would have reinforced a guilty verdict, prosecutors argue.

Gary today remains on death row in Jackson, Ga.

The next step in the case is a defense response to the prosecution's motion. Judge Jordan then may schedule a hearing for further argument, or decide on the filings alone whether Gary deserves a new trial, attorneys said.

This story was originally published August 18, 2015 at 9:57 PM with the headline "Attorneys argue evidence in ongoing Carlton Gary case ."