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Murderer exhausts primary appeals
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By Ben Orcutt -- borcutt@nvdaily.com
WASHINGTON, Va. -- Rappahannock County Commonwealth's Attorney Peter H. Luke hopes residents can rest easier knowing that the chances of convicted murderer Ira Wayne Cloniger ever getting out of prison are slim.
"I deal with a lot of criminals and he's one you can definitely say, he should not be free," Luke said Friday during an interview at his office across Gay Street from the Rappahannock County Circuit Courthouse. "This guy should not be out running around. You may recall, he was on bond for stabbing a guy in Culpeper at the time he committed this murder. He had stabbed a number of people before. So yeah, the only way to protect the public from him is to have him locked up."
Cloniger, 47, is serving a life sentence at Wallens Ridge State Prison near Big Stone Gap, according to online Virginia Department of Corrections information.
In January 2007, a jury of seven women and five men found Cloniger guilty of first-degree murder for stabbing Edward C. "Fast Eddie" Fletcher Jr., 29, of Warren County, in the throat with a long folding knife July 2, 2006, at Cloniger's residence at 712 Gid Brown Hollow Drive, about four miles west of Washington.
In September 2007, Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey W. Parker followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Cloniger to life in prison. Subsequently, Cloniger's lawyer, Bonnie H. Hoffman, a public defender, filed appeals on Cloniger's behalf to the Court of Appeals of Virginia and the Supreme Court of Virginia.
On Friday, Luke said both of the higher courts have denied Cloniger's direct appeals.
"If you look at it on a statistical basis, the chances of that conviction being overturned on direct appeal were slim," Luke said. "There are very few cases that are overturned on direct appeal in criminal cases in Virginia.
"To get to the federal system, you have to allege some error of federal constitutional law. You have to allege there was an illegal search or seizure, a violation of Fourth, Fifth, Sixth Amendment, something like that to get over into the federal side. I don't think you've got anything like that. Of course, they can come up with anything he wants, but I don't think anything like that's going to happen. I think what normally happens in these type of cases is they start picking on their attorney. That's what's called a collateral attack."
Luke said if such appeals are made, they would likely start out in Rappahannock County Circuit Court and then work their way through the state and possibly the federal system.
Cloniger remained a fugitive for seven days after the murder until he was apprehended near Massies Corner, at the intersection of U.S. 211 and 522.
"I think the fact that he was loose and running around scared a lot of people," Luke said. "The fact that he was a fugitive caused a lot of people a lot of apprehension, especially because this is kind of an isolated part of the county this happened in and he was back out running around."
The defense's argument that Cloniger stabbed and killed Fletcher in a rage of passion for supposedly raping Cloniger's girlfriend, Helen Pierce, fell apart, Luke said, on two key pieces of testimony.
Luke said it was crucial to the case when the jury learned that after Cloniger stabbed Fletcher, he kicked and urinated on him while Fletcher was dying and that Cloniger considered burning Fletcher's body.
Another key piece of evidence in the case, Luke said, was the playing of a tape recording of a conversation Cloniger had while incarcerated at the Winchester regional jail following the murder.
"He kind of has this really blood-curdling laugh, 'I told you I was your number one hit man,'" Luke said. "I tell you, I never talked to any jurors, but when I heard that, I said man, this guy just put the noose around his own damn neck here. I don't use the word 'evil' very often, but I would say that he could qualify as someone who is an evil individual."
Fletcher's mother, Claudia Carbaugh, 54, of Martinsburg, W.Va., said Friday that she was relieved to learn that Cloniger has exhausted his primary appeals.
"That just helps relieve me that much more because it had been on my mind," she said. "I don't want him to get out. I want him to stay right where he's at. I don't think he should be allowed out after all the stuff he's done. It's like your heart hurts but some days a little more than others."
Carbaugh said she visits her son's grave every weekend at Green Hill Cemetery in Stephens City. She said she talks to him and sometimes offers him a taste of beer.
"I got me and him a tombstone together," she said.
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