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RUSTBURG — The recorded confession of a man charged with capital murder will be allowed as evidence at his trial, a Campbell County judge ruled Monday.
His lawyers had argued the statement was made after the man asked for an attorney and that allowing the statement would violate his rights.
Renauldo Oliver, 24, of Gretna, and co-defendant Alphonso Destin, of Altavista, are charged with capital murder in the May 23, 2008 slaying of Lynch Station resident Wilbur West.
Judge John Cook heard a recording of the interview in a June. The recording was made when Oliver was arrested May 30, five days after West’s body was found. About 10 minutes into the interview with Campbell County Sheriff’s Office investigators Mike Milnor and Dwayne Wade, Oliver could be heard mentioning something about a lawyer.
Cook said Oliver asked, “When do I get a lawyer?”
Prosecutors argued in earlier hearings that Oliver was asking when a lawyer would be ap-pointed for him. Oliver’s lawyers claimed he was invoking his constitutional right to have an attorney present while he was being interviewed.
At that point, his lawyers said, the interview should have stopped. Statements he made after that point, including the admission that he shot Wright, should not be heard by a jury, they argued.
During the June hearing, Milnor testified he read Oliver his rights two days before the taped interview and again the day he was arrested. Milnor testified Oliver did not ask for an attorney and that he would have stopped the interview otherwise.
Cook ruled Oliver had been advised of his rights twice and had knowingly waived them before the confession.
Oliver told investigators different stories over the course of the recorded interview. He first said Destin took the pistol and shot West. Then Oliver said he accidentally shot West while he and Destin struggled over the gun.
In the final version, he said he shot West while Destin was yelling at him to shoot.
“I stepped over Mr. West,” Oliver said in the recording. “I didn’t even look at the man. … I walked over him. Pop. Pop. Twice.”
In the interview, Oliver said that after Destin tackled the older man, West hit his head so hard Oliver thought he was dead. In an earlier hearing, Wade, the investigator, testified the blow likely would have been fatal.
News & Advance Staff writer Carrie J. Sidener contributed to this report.
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