The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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June 12, 2009

Man enters plea

By Michelle James

Michael Curtis Plumley, 33, of Shady Spring, faces three to 15 years in prison after entering a Kennedy plea to manslaughter in Raleigh County Circuit Court Friday.

A Kennedy plea allows a defendant who believes he or she might receive a heavier penalty by going to trial to accept a plea without offering admission of guilt.

Plumley was indicted last September for first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the Aug. 29, 2007, shooting death of Roger Dolan Wilson, 54, of Nimitz.

On the day of Wilson’s death, according to chief deputy prosecutor Tom Truman, Plumley had abused controlled substances as he drove from Ohio back to West Virginia.

Upon arriving in Raleigh County, Plumley stopped by Wilson’s home to obtain additional drugs.

Truman did not detail what happened at the residence, but said Wilson, who had consumed a large quantity of alcohol, was killed with a gun he himself had produced.

Truman said although Plumley was at Wilson’s residence with the intent of performing “an unlawful act,” the state would produce no evidence of malice.

Although defense attorney Robert Dunlap said Plumley’s was “the hardest case I’ve had criminally,” he said he believed it was in his client’s best interest to plead guilty to the reduced charge since he would have faced a far greater penalty if convicted by a jury.

Plumley will be sentenced by Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick on July 22.

— E-mail: mjames@register-herald.com

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