Man freed from death row for ‘railroad spike’ murder after out-of-town judge upends notorious case

Inset: David Lee Myers (Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction). Background: Greene County Courthouse (WHIO).

An Ohio death row inmate was released on house arrest while he awaits a new trial for killing a pregnant teenage mother in 1988 with a railroad spike through her head after his conviction and sentence were vacated when his lawyers said DNA in the case was not his.

David Lee Myers, 60, was released on Monday from the Greene County Courthouse with conditions that he wear a GPS monitor, not leave the state and refrain from drinking alcohol or using drugs as he awaits another trial in the killing of Amanda Jo Maher in 1988.

The victim’s daughter, Sarah Sparkman, who was 8 months old when her mother was killed, urged the judge to keep him locked up, local CBS affiliate WHIO reported.

“Why risk it? I have experienced a lifetime of emotional and psychological turmoil due to my mother’s death,” Sparkman said, the outlet reported.

Prosecutors argued to keep him in custody, citing a 1986 forgery conviction and saying at the time Maher was killed, Myers was on probation for sexual battery, the Dayton Daily News reported.

Myers’ defense attorney, Elizabeth Smith, said he’s entitled to be released in light of new evidence that she says clears him, local NBC affiliate WDTN reported. “He is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” she said, the network reported. “There’s no direct evidence here. All of the things that the state has said have been thrown out.”

Amanda Jo Maher was found by passersby fatally wounded near abandoned railroad tracks in Xenia, Ohio, at 3 a.m. on Aug. 4, 1988, according to Ohio Supreme Court documents that outline the case. She was nude except for a shirt pulled up around her neck, and she had a railroad spike through her temple. She was flown to a hospital, where she died of severe head trauma from the railroad spike and attempted strangulation, court documents said. A 23-year-old Myers, who had been seen walking with Maher in the direction of the railroad tracks shortly before her body was found, was arrested. Charges were dropped in 1991, but he was indicted again in 1993. In 1996, he was found guilty of aggravated murder and sentenced to death in 1996.

He appealed. His attorneys successfully argued in an evidentiary hearing earlier this month that DNA on the railroad spike used to kill Maher and a rock used in the attack did not match Myers’ DNA. His lawyers said in a statement he has maintained his innocence for more than 35 years and was finally granted access to DNA testing in 2020, the Dayton Daily News reported.

“The testing revealed male DNA on the railroad spike used to kill the victim and a rock used in the assault, and importantly, the results excluded Mr. Myers as the source of that DNA,” according to a statement from his lawyers in July. “Because of this newly discovered exculpatory DNA evidence, and because his conviction and death sentence were based on false, misleading and unreliable forensic science that has since been debunked by the scientific community, Mr. Myers deserves a fair, new trial where a jury can hear all of the evidence.”

Visiting Greene County Common Pleas Court Judge Jonathan Hein, a retired judge from Darke County, agreed.

“Based upon the evidence presented at the hearing, and based upon the reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, the Court finds that the Defendant’s new evidence is sufficiently reliable — in both theory and in reality — to undermine the integrity of the trial verdict,” Hein wrote in his ruling on Aug. 6, the Xenia Gazette reported.

Prosecutors have said they are appealing the judge’s ruling.

“While we respect the Court’s decision, we are deeply disappointed and disagree with the granting of a new trial in this case in addition to the Court’s decision to vacate the conviction,” Greene County Prosecuting Attorney David D. Hayes said, the newspaper reported. “Our appellate counsel is reviewing the decisions and preparing an appeal.”