Wallens Ridge inmate charged with murder of cellmate was previously on death row
21 years after a Virginia governor commuted the death sentence of a convicted murderer, the man has been charged again with capital murder.
William Aristede Saunders, also known as William Ira Saunders, remains incarcerated at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, where his cellmate, Donald Gary, 55, died May 18. Saunders, 48, has been indicted by a Wise County grand jury in Gary's death.
An inmate-on-inmate attack was suspected in Gary's death, according to Lisa Kinney, a spokeswoman with the Virginia Department of Corrections. The cause of death has not been released.
Wise County Commonwealth's Attorney Chuck Slemp declined to comment on the case.
Saunders is currently serving a sentence of life plus 7 years, Kinney said Friday. He was sentenced to death earlier, but it was commuted.
He was sentenced on Dec. 1, 1989, to 4 years on a statutory burglary charge, records show. Also in 1989, he was sentenced to 4 years on a grand larceny charge.
On May 3, 1990, he was convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to death. But on Sept. 15, 1997, while Saunders was on death row, Gov. George Allen commuted the death sentence and ordered him to serve life without parole.
Authorities said Saunders fatally shot a man, Mervin Dale Guill, during a drug deal on July 17, 1989, in Danville, Virginia.
In addition to a death sentence for capital murder, a judge also sentenced Saunders to life in prison on a robbery charge, 2 years on a use of a firearm in a felony charge and 1 year for arson.
Gov. Allen said that he was "swayed by a prosecutor and judge who said Saunders is not the same violent man sentenced to death" for the 1989 murder, and "it would be in the 'best interest of justice' for Saunders' sentence to be commuted to life in prison."
During sentencing, the judge was informed of a number of incidents that occurred at the city jail, including fights and fires. Saunders also has a juvenile record.
In court records, Saunders' mother describes him as being very personable. She believes his main problem is that he is too easily influenced by others.
Saunders was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Danville area.
He has been involved with the court system and off and on probation, or in jail, since the early 1980s, according to records.
Gary, the person killed in an inmate-on-inmate attack in May, had also been serving a life sentence. According to reports, he was convicted in 1998 of kidnapping 2 women from a Danville trailer park at gunpoint, then robbing a man at a car wash and stealing his vehicle.
Saunders is scheduled to appear in Wise County Circuit Court on Aug. 22 to advise the court about attorney arrangements.
(source: Bristol Herald Courier)
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