Payne appeals to state court
A Grindstone woman convicted in June of killing her husband is appealing to the state Superior Court after a Fayette County judge denied her request for a new trial. A jury found Debra S. Payne guilty of first-degree murder, and she faces a mandatory life sentence for the June 2003 shooting death of her husband, Harold Eugene Payne.
In a motion filed June 22, Payne’s attorney, Samuel J. Davis, argued that the jury’s verdict went against the weight of evidence presented at trial. In the motion, Davis wrote that the verdict “shocks one’s sense of justice” and that the commonwealth failed to circumstantially or directly establish that Payne killed her husband.
“The award of a new trial is imperative so that right may be given another opportunity to prevail,” Davis wrote.
However, during a hearing last week on Payne’s motion, Davis was unable to convince Judge Ralph C. Warman that the 45-year-old woman should be granted a new trial, so Payne appealed to the Superior Court.
Jurors in the Payne case sorted through expert testimony from a number of sources, including gunshot residue analysts, DNA and bloodstain experts and a suicidologist, called by the defense to bolster their contention that Harold Payne shot himself.
District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon argued that Payne shot her husband execution-style as he slept in bed. Although police initially thought they might be dealing with a suicide, the position of Harold Payne’s body when he was found raised suspicion. His left arm was under his head, his right hand tucked under his body, with a blanket pulled up over him to the elbow, according to authorities. A .38 caliber revolver was on top of the blanket.
A state police forensic expert found traces of DNA from both Harold and Debra Payne on the revolver. Gunshot residue was found on Payne’s clothing, but another expert testified that the residue didn’t necessarily mean Payne had fired the gun.
Davis said Payne should have been granted a new trial because the commonwealth failed to prove she was guilty. He said the prosecution’s expert, John Evans, could not say with scientific certainty that Debra Payne fired the revolver and said no blood was found on Payne’s clothing.