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Page 2B. PLAYGROUND DAILY NEWS. Wednesday Morning. December 31. 1986Man who shot wife in restaurant wants trial; judge denies motionBy ROBERT KUNTZDaily News Staff WriterA former Air Force sergeant serving time for killing his wife in 1984 asked a judge Tuesday to let him withdraw his no-contest plea and stand trial.Although prosecutors said they wouldn’t object to taking 27-year-old James D. Graham to trial. Circuit Judge Erwin Fleet denied the motion.Graham was indicted for first-degree murder in December 1984 for the Nov. 4 shooting of his ex-wife, Bonnie Lee Williams Graham, in a Mary Esther restaurant. After shooting her, Graham shot himself once in the head. The bullet didn't penetrate his skull; he was released from the hospital after six weeks.Graham avoided trial by pleading no contest to second-degree murder in May 1985. At that time, the state attorney’s office asked Fleet to depart from state sentencing guidelines and send Graham to prison for 30 years. Fleet exceeded even that recommendation. sentencing Graham to a life term.The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled Oct. 28 of this year that Fleet's reasons for departing from the guidelines were insufficient and ordered him to resentence Graham to a term within the guidelines - 12 to 17 years.Before Fleet could do that Tuesday, he heard arguments on a motion that Graham and his court-appointed attorney, Michael Jones, had filed Monday. Graham wanted Fleet to let him withdraw his nocontest plea and go to trial.“Do you understand that if the court grants your motion you will probably be retried and most probably for first-degree murder?” Jones asked his client on the stand.“You'd be taking a chance on being convicted and you could be sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years.”Grinsted said the state had no position on that, but would be willing to try the case in court.“We don't play games with the system,” Fleet said, and pressed Grinsted for the state’s opinion about the voluntariness of Graham’s plea.When Grinsted repeated that the state couldn’t say, Fleet became visibly angry .“You rolled over and played dead on the grand jury7 in the first instance,” Fleet said. “Are you telling me you want to roll over and play dead again?”Grinsted said that if Fleet granted Graham’s motion, the state attornev’s office would seekwanother first-degree murder indictment and prosecute Graham on that charge.Fleet read to Grinsted a letter the assistant state attorney had sent Fleet at the time of the plea. In the letter. Grinsted told Fleet the victim's family was ready to have the case settled and forgo a trial.Grinsted told the judge Tuesday he had spoken recently with the victim's father, who was agreeable to a trial.But Fleet said neither the motion nor the testimony had convinced him Graham's original plea w7as less than voluntary7. He denied the motion to withdraw it, then sentenced Graham to 17 years injail.After the hearing, Chief Assistant State Attorney Drew Pinkerton called Graham's motion an effort “to jump out of the proverbial frying pan into the fire.” He said his office would’ve tried Graham gladly.“What’s at issue here is length of incarceration.” Pinkerton said. “We agreed to the (no-contest) plea because we hoped and expected the court would depart from the guidelines. We asked for 30 years. Judge Fleet went beyond that and gave him a life sentence. Then the DC A changed the rules.”JAMES D. GRAHAM...wants to stand trial“Yes.” Graham said. “That’s what I’m asking the court to do.”Graham claimed his decision to take a plea bargain in May 1985 was clouded by anti-seizure medicine he was taking at the time. He said he had suffered a grand mal seizure two days before his hearing and had been given 1,600 milligrams of Dilantin - four times his usual daily dose.He also said attorneys in the public defender’s office had misled him into believing he was guilty of second-degree murder.“They misrepresented the law so I thought that just because I hadthe firearm and my wife died I wasguilty,” Graham said. “But I didn’t shoot my wife. I’m not guilty.”Fleet asked Graham to recall the day of the hearing, reminding him he had been questioned about the voluntary7 nature of his plea.“Are you telling me today that you lied?” Fleet asked him.Fleet asked Assistant State Attorney Ace Grinsted whether the prosecution objected to the motion. WTien Grinsted said no. Fleet asked whether the state believed Graham’s plea had been involuntary.
Newspaper Details
Fort Walton Beach Playground Daily News
Fort Walton Beach, Florida, US
Wed, Dec 31, 1986
Page 12
Full Page
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USA 15 May 2020
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