Friday, May 11, 2001
In strange hearing, he admits murder, woundings that will earn him at least 95 years
Gay pleads guilty in cafe shootings

Public Defender Roger Dalton said he will offer mitigating evidence about his client's mental health at the sentencing.

By TAD DICKENS
The Roanoke Times

   Ronald Edward Gay pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder and malicious wounding charges in the Sept. 22 shootings at the Backstreet Cafe.

    But it wasn't really that simple. Confused by questions from Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein, Gay nearly withdrew his pleas before taking a break for a quick conference with his defense lawyers. He returned minutes later to affirm his pleas.

    In the process, he gave the court a glimpse into the thinking that led to the death of Danny Lee Overstreet and the wounding of six other patrons at the Salem Avenue nightspot that caters to gays and lesbians.

    It was an act he had been contemplating for years, even stalking another Salem Avenue gay bar in 1986. He wanted to burn it, but "failed," according to a transcript of a police interview.

    It was a "mission" he denied himself until he could hold back no longer, he told the judge.

    "I don't want to get into Lucifer," Gay said, half mumbling. Then his voice rose again as he described what he perceived just before he pulled out a 9 mm handgun and began firing that night.

    "At that point, that person across from me was Lucifer's advocate," he said.

    In a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped seven firearms charges against him - charges that would have added an extra 33 years to a sentence of at least 95 years. He faces a maximum of four life terms plus 60 years.

    The 55-year-old Gay would be eligible for geriatric parole at age 65, Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said, but he would have to be in very poor shape to receive it. Also, prosecutors reduced charges in the shootings of Joel Tucker, John Collins and Susan Smith to malicious wounding from aggravated malicious wounding. Their injuries have left scars, but no permanent physical pain and impairment, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney John McNeil said.

    But injuries that Page Webb, Linda Conyers and Kathy Caldwell suffered continue to cause them pain and disability, McNeil said. So Gay was convicted of aggravated malicious wounding in their shootings.

    All agreements could have been off, though, had Gay followed through on his intention to withdraw the guilty pleas and ask for a jury trial.

    He had been "turned around" during a routine question-and-answer portion of the hearing, said his attorney, Public Defender Roger Dalton. Judges use the questions to determine whether defendants understand the legal ramifications of their pleas and whether the pleas are entered voluntarily.

    Weckstein asked questions about the insanity defense, which Gay had considered, and which his family had paid analysts to study.

    To prove insanity, the defense would have had to prove that Gay did not know right from wrong, that he didn't understand the consequences of his actions, or that he was a victim of an irresistible impulse.

    A psychiatrist and a psychologist examined Gay, but determined that he was not legally insane, Public Defender Ray Leven said after the hearing.

    The analysts did, however, find lots of mitigating evidence about his mental health history for lawyers to present at his sentencing, Dalton told Weckstein.

    As he answered the judge's questions, Gay began to fear he might not be able to have that evidence heard at sentencing, Dalton said. Gay began to balk as the judge questioned him.

    "In my mind, I'm messed up, because if I'm insane, then God is insane," said Gay, who contended in a recent letter to The Roanoke Times that he was a "Christian soldier" working for the "Lord."

    "But they said I wasn't insane, so ..." he added.

    After a few more questions, Weckstein asked him if he understood that his guilty pleas meant that he gave up the chance to present an insanity defense. By then, Gay was ready to recant.

    "Can I withdraw that and have a jury?" he asked the judge.

    Weckstein gave the defense a recess to discuss the matter.

    It was among the most dramatic of several statements Gay made in a format that generally yields only "yes" and "no" answers. Instead, it amounted to testimony.

    Early on, he interrupted the judge's questions to interject a statement about the shootings.

    "Can I say one thing? I didn't know any of these people," Gay said. "This was not a hate crime."

    Later, though, he said he was driven to it - driven insane over the years by the notion that he should do it.

    "But I buried that and I buried that until I was driven insane to do what I had to do," he told the judge.

    He asked to see a photo of Overstreet, taken at the scene. Prosecutor McNeil was about to enter it into evidence, but instead handed it over for Gay's perusal.

    Gay looked at it intently for about five seconds.

    "See, this is not the guy I shot," he said. He remembered a man with a cap, wig and buckskin jacket sitting across from him, he said, and even though common sense dictated that this was his victim, even though he realized this must be the victim, he continued to express a wavering disbelief.

    Caldwell, the chief prosecutor, later told the judge that Overstreet apparently had been wearing a cap that night, but no wig or jacket.

    Despite that misunderstanding, Gay repeatedly admitted what he had done and told Weckstein he understood the consequences and what had caused it. It wasn't because of his last name, as he had told police earlier.

    "If it had been about my name, I would've done it 10 years ago," he said.

    In interviews with police, he said "the Lord" or "the higher power" told him to, according to transcripts prosecutors entered into evidence.

    Roanoke police Officer Shawn Matthews arrested him and conducted the first interview, which he recorded in audio with his patrol car's video camera.

    Matthews: "Sir, where'd you just now come from?"

    Gay: "I came from a fag bar and blew them away."

    Matthews: " OK. Who'd you blow away and why?"

    Gay: (unintelligible).

    Matthews: "Excuse me, sir?"

    Gay: "The Lord told me to."

    As the interview ended, Gay had a request.

    Gay: "Now will you put me to death?"

    Matthews: "No sir, I won't put you to death."

    But in a later interview with Detective Monti Lee, he discussed the issues associated with his name.

    "The name Gay is related to [a] bunch of sickos and just was overwhelming," according to a transcript entered into evidence. "I just couldn't take it no more. I fought it for a long, long time."

    Sitting in the courtroom, listening to Gay's statements and hearing portions of the transcripts, were some of his victims and their families, including Carol and Misty Overstreet, Danny Overstreet's sister and niece.

    Misty Overstreet said she didn't buy into what she believes were Gay's self-serving statements. She was galled when Gay called her uncle "Lucifer's advocate," but found it almost humorous at the same time, she said.

    "Because you could see from what he was saying that he knew not what he spoke," Misty Overstreet said.

    The Danny Overstreet she knew "was a caring person, a considerate person, a humorous person," she said. Gay "spoke only of an image he had of people he hated."

    Despite Gay's claim that the shootings were not a hate crime, members of the gay community believe otherwise, said the Rev. Catherine Houchins, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge, a predominantly gay and lesbian congregation.

    "If one chooses to go deer hunting, one doesn't go to a duck pond," said Houchins, who was not at the hearing. "I don't think he went to the Backstreet that night because he was accepting and tolerant of people.

    "Of course, it doesn't meet the Virginia definition of hate crimes, because sexual orientation is not covered."

    Weckstein did not schedule a sentencing date, instead allowing Gay's attorneys time to coordinate witnesses for what will be a long look at their client's psychological history.

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