On this page, you will find the appeals brief submitted to The West Virginia Court of Appeals and written testimonials of several people who have known Erick for many years. Some of these wanted to testify on Ericks’ behalf but were not allowed.
In the Appeals Brief, you will see the attorney, B. Craig Manford, pointed out line by line where the States’ key witness Terry Marks lied in his testimony. It is fraught with falsehoods and misstatements.
The Appeals Brief also points out there clearly was no evidence presented by the State of an ambush or surprise attack by Erick Shute which could possibly support the notion of lying in wait. The evidence clearly established that Erick Shute and Willie Bartley spoke to each other at the fence line for a substantial amount of time and that even Terry Marks and Jack Douglas left their immediate location in their truck and returned and Erick was still talking to Willie Bartley. There was no lying in wait and it was a clear error to so instruct the jury. Also, as pointed the error was not harmless as it could have directly influenced the jury that the victims were ambushed or taken by surprise which was not the case and would have negated any possible self-defense or imperfect self-defense theory.
It was plain and prejudicial error and an abuse of power for the court to sentence Erick Shute to consecutive sentences.
Many of these documents are in PDF format. Click on the links to open any of them. Please click the link at the bottom to sign the petition found on Change.org