Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, SportsJudge Denies Change Of Venue For Charleston Sniper Suspect Shawn Lester

The suspect in the 2003 Charleston sniper killings will stand trial in Kanawha County, despite his attorney's plea for a change of venue.

Circuit Court Judge Louis Bloom issued an order today denying a change of venue request from Shawn Lester's attorney. The 36-year-old Lester is charged with three counts of homicide and a pair of drug-related charges.

The charges are linked to a series of killings that terrified Kanawha County residents almost a decade ago. Gary Carrier, 44, was shot and killed Aug. 10, 2003 while speaking on a pay phone on Charleston's West Side. Four days laterJeanie Patton, 31 was gunned down while pumping gas at a Campbell's Creek convenience store. And less than an hour after that killing, Okey Meadows, 26, was shot and killed making a purchase at the night window of a Cedar Grove convenience store.

Lester was indicted last May. His attorneys argued that the "atmosphere of fear" created by the killings and heavy pre-trial news coverage would prohibit a fair trial. At a Feb. 9 hearing, Lester's lawyers called a psychologist to testify about the effect of news coverage on jury selection. But Judge Bloom ruled the experts opinions were based on generalized research, not on the Lester case. He also found community fear surrounding the case has died down in the years since the case.

Bloom's order sums it up this way: "In the present case, the Defendant may have produced evidence showing the widespread publicity surrounding the present criminal case, but he has failed to produce any evidence that prejudice currently exists against him, let alone that prejudice currently exists against him which is so great he cannot receive a fair trial in Kanawha County."