John Yancey Schmitt - Murder

Murder

Shortly after 1:00 p.m. on February 17, 1999, Schmitt entered the NationsBank in Bon Air, Virginia wearing dark sunglasses and a bulky jacket. Schmitt kept his head lowered and appeared to scan the interior of the bank. Bank manager Sara Parker-Orr testified that she was “nervous” about Schmitt because he was wearing sunglasses inside the bank on a “really cloudy day.”

After Schmitt went inside the bank, Earl Dunning, the bank’s new security guard, entered the bank and walked across the lobby to stand at the end of the teller line in which customers were waiting. Parker-Orr watched Schmitt leave the line he was currently in and walk toward Dunning. When Schmitt was within “a foot or so” of Dunning, Parker-Orr heard two gunshots and then heard someone scream, “Get down, get down.”

Schmitt next approached Parker-Orr's teller window and banged on the counter yelling, “Money, give me money,” and “If I don't get money, I'm going to kill everybody.” Parker-Orr opened her cash drawer and threw money into a black plastic bag that Schmitt was holding. Schmitt continued to bang on the counter demanding “more money.” He said that he would give the tellers ten seconds to give him more money, and began counting backward from the number ten.

By the time Schmitt reached nine, teller Marlene Austin was throwing money in the bag as well. Parker-Orr also gave Schmitt money from a third teller's drawer. When she told Schmitt that she had no more money to give him, he left the bank.

None of the witnesses who testified at trial actually saw who shot Dunning and the shooting was not recorded by the bank's security camera system. The bank's security camera system, however, did record photographs of Schmitt approaching the end of the teller counter and standing at a teller window holding a bag and pointing a gun. Parker-Orr, Austin, and another teller, Kelli Konstaitis, all identified a photograph of Schmitt recorded by the bank's security camera system as depicting the man who robbed the bank that day.

After Schmitt left the bank witnesses telephoned the 9-1-1 emergency response number and attended to Dunning, who was lying on the floor. By the time emergency medical personnel arrived Dunning was dead. An autopsy revealed that Dunning was killed as a result of a .45-caliber bullet entering the right side of his chest causing significant injuries to the aorta and exiting from the right side of his back. Witnesses in the bank testified that they did not touch or see anyone else touch Dunning's gun or its holster; the gun was found in its holster, closed and snapped.

After the murder and robbery Schmitt registered at a Williamsburg hotel the same day under the name “R. Napier” paying cash for a three-day stay at the hotel. The hotel desk clerk testified that Schmitt asked for directions to the local shopping areas, and that when Schmitt later returned to the hotel, his hair was a different color.

Captain Karl S. Leonard of the Chesterfield County Police Department identified Schmitt after reviewing the photographs taken by the bank's security camera system. On February 19 Leonard learned where Schmitt was staying in Williamsburg. The James City County Tactical Team surrounded Schmitt's hotel room, and a crisis negotiator, Lieutenant Diane M. Clarcq of the James City County Police Department, attempted to persuade Schmitt to surrender. About 10:30 a.m. the following morning Schmitt surrendered and was taken into police custody.

Leonard obtained a search warrant for Schmitt's hotel room where a satchel, a .45-caliber handgun, a box of shotgun shells, a black leather jacket, and a variety of newly purchased clothing items were seized. John H. Willmer, a firearms and tool mark examiner employed by the Virginia Division of Forensic Science, testified that he examined the handgun found in Schmitt's hotel room and the cartridge casings and bullets found in the bank. Wilmer testified that the cartridge casings and bullets had been fired from the handgun, and concluded that the pattern of gunpowder residue found on Dunning's clothing indicated that when he was shot the distance between him and the firearm muzzle was between 12 and 36 inches. Inside the satchel was $27,091 in cash, most of which still bore “bank bands” identifying the money as coming from the Bon Air branch of NationsBank.

Schmitt was tried in Chesterfield County. During the penalty phase of the trial the jury learned that Schmitt, armed with a sawed off shotgun and accompanied by another man, had robbed $65,000 from the very same bank a month before Schmitt had murdered Dunning. After deliberating for nine hours the jury found the presence of the future dangerousness aggravator, and the court sentenced Schmitt to death. Governor Timothy M. Kaine rejected Schmitt’s request for clemency.