The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 155

SECTION Slje JEiaroi Meralb Friday April 26 1974 I 1 Slayings Suspect Pleads Guilty to Murder i 9 9 1 9 I 9 I I I I' imprisoned felons serving life sentences and hired killings as exceptions Judge Williams replied may be some others but it would certainly have to be a heinous attorney made it clear at hearing that his client was pleading guilty to the one charge of murder with the understanding that the maximum sentence to be imposed would be life imprisonment parents his wife Jo-Ann a brother and other family members sat impassively throughout the proceedings as newspaper radio and TV reporters jammed the tiny spectators area of the courtroom Giles who has been imprisoned since Dec 11 will be returned to Brevard County Jail and will then return to Seminole County Monday for a sentencing hearing on legal points raised by Herring on the capital punishment issue Judge Williams said the confessed killer will be committed for psychiatric treatment adding that he believed Giles to be a "mentally disturbed sex after reading two psychiatric reports on the 21-year-old high school dropout among members of the bar and I have sat as judge here for 16 almost 17 years that never had to impose the death Judge Williams began would find it extremely difficult or impossible to exercise this discretion (death sentence) (difficult) on my soul to take a human he continued in the hushed standing-room-only courtroom I to understand your Honor that this court under no circumstances would impose a death Herring asked DETAILING murder by said after hearing that he will press for a death sentence "The state has not agreed to anything regarding this the Brevard-Seminole County prosecutor said going to push it (death sentence) as hard as I can push JUDGE Williams who accepted plea during a prehearing conference in his Seminole County Courthouse chambers Thursday morning and then in the open courtroom made clear his feelings on the controversial capital punishment issue fairly well known pattern GILES WAS arrested the day after Miss body was found on an attempted rape charge and police began search for the victims The others found murdered were identified as: Paula Darlene Hamric 22 of-Mims Jan Bennett 17 of Mims Mary Wimer 14 of Titusville and Krista Melton 14 of Titusville The sixth body not tied to the mass murder case has not yet been identified State Attorney Herring objected to Judge finding Giles a disturbed sex and Herring declined to say Thursday if he will press charges against Giles on any of the other murders Orlando defense lawyer Edward Kirkland said that if Giles is faced with a death sentence after treatment in the mental hospital his client can then withdraw his guilty plea and stand trial all over again Miss Gerry who diasap-peared the evening of Sept 26 after walking to a Titus' ville shopping center near her home was the second victim found in a series of grisly discoveries that eventually turned up six victims all but one identical in Circuit Court Judge Volie Williams ruled out the death penalty for Giles and adjudged the confessed murderer to be a "mentally disturbed sex offender" Under criminal statutes regarding disturbed sex Giles will not be sentenced until such time as he is judged to be GILES who pleaded guilty last month to two unrelated charges of assault and armed robbery in connection with attempted rapes will be turned over to the state mental hospital for treatment State Attorney Abbott in Mail Fraud Case Judge Grants Separate Trial For FL Bailey Orlando area Bailey who was not in court for the announcement said he could make no comment since he is still bound by the order against giving informa tion to newsmen or the public I Turner gave a characteristic wink and smile as he left the federal courthouse but also said he was unable to comment Press By WAYNE MARKHAM Central Florida Bureau Chief SANFORD A 21-year-old Titusville man suspected of killing five North Brevard County women pleaded guilty to first degree murder Thursday Bernard Eugene Giles reversed his earlier innocent plea and admitted killing 18-year-old Nancy Gerry of Titusville last fall one of five victims discovered over a four-month period in Brevard worst mass murder case In an unusual and impassioned speech to a packed Seminole County courtroom Giles- A TITUSVILLE Friends describe Bernard Eugene Giles as quiet introspective an excellent student artist who dropped out of high school his senior year and became an apprentice electrician Neighbors and lawmen spent time with the tall gangly six-footer add moody a loner to the portrait Not much more is known really about the man who Thursday admitted the grisly killing of an 18-year-old girl whose partially nude decomposed body was one of six found in the North Brevard area in a four-month period GILES who married in 1971 and has a nine-month-old daughter lived in a $7000 trailer home north of Titusville His wife Joann was taking training He was laid off from his job as an helper shortly before his arrest Dec 11 on attempted rape charges in two unrelated cases Neighbors said the Giles family quietly in the Mobile Manor Trailer Park off US 1 entertaining other friends from outside Jthe park and occasionally -hiring an 11-year-old neigh-' bor girl to babysit with their ini ant daughter for nigfhs out' Giles frequently went out at night alone others add but little else about his habits has been pinned down ALL FIVE victims who have been Identified disappeared while walking alone the Titusville area all of them in the evening Paula Darlene Hamric 22 i a divorced mother of two was the first victim found hen hunters stumbled across her nude body in a 1 1 ditch near Scottsmoor Nov 425 Nancy Gerry 18 was a high school student who fre-- quently worked as a babysit-ter for friends and neighbors "The night of Sept 26 she walked to a nearby shopping to cash a check from her babysitting job the night before and disappeared She was the second victim found by police when chil-dren playing in a orangs grove Dec 10 found her badly decomposed remains SHOT in the head with a 22-caliber bullet Miss Gerry Jtwas one of three victims to 'be found with recognizable bullet wounds as the cause of death The other bodies are Sj too badly decomposed to de-termine cause of death tt Sharon Wimer 14 disap- peared the evening of Nov 5 She told her mother she was going to a nearby store for cigarets but was later re-ported seen at a donut shop on US I and then seen walking south along the highway JAN Bennett 17 disappeared six days after the Wimer girl on Nov 11 a Sunday She got a phone call around 7 pm recalls her father Bennie Bennett then a few minutes later stepped outside the house He thought she would be gone onlya few minutes but she 3was not heard from again Krista Melton 14 who dis- appeared after heading for a 4 shopping trip to Memtt Is- land was found Jan 31 in a search of a wooded area west -of Titusville Miss Melton whose body was fully clothed was shot in the head A sixth body found Jan 19 on the Merritt Island tional Wildlife Refuge is still 'unidentified New Arrival The first-stage booster of the Saturn IB which will power an American spacecraft in the joint US-Russian space venture In 1975 arrived at Cape Kennedy Thursday The 80-foot 86000-pound rocket completed a five-day trip from New Orleans' JACKSONVILLE (AP) Noted criminal attorney Lee Bailey was granted a separate trial Thursday in a federal mail-fraud case against him promoter Glenn Turner and seven Turner associates The severance announcement came from US District Judge Gerald Tjoflat after two days of secret courtroom conferences Tjoflat said the order granting Bailey a severance and the reasons for it would not be made public until the end of the trial since the jury is not being locked up He then recessed the trial until Wednesday Tjoflat called the 12-member jury in and told them case of Lee Bailey has been severed from this trial You will not determine his guilt or innocence ABSENCE should In no way affect your deliberations on the guilt or Innocence of the other Then in rapid-fire order the other defendants rested their cases without further testimony with only defendant Malcom Julian offering several exhibits The developments brought to a close testimony in the marathon trial that began last Sept 17 that remains is rebuttal evidence by the Tjoflat said should take no longer than five days and should be concluded on or prior to May HE SAID the case should go to the jury the week of May 13 None of the defendants has testified and none is expected to for the remainder of the trial All are charged with 26 counts of mail fraud and one of conspiracy in the operations of Turner corporations Koscot Interplanetary Inc a cosmetics company Dare To Be Great Inc a motivational-course business and their parent company Glenn Turner Enterprises The three corporations are also defendants Most of the past three months since the government rested its case have been taken up with the defense of the corporations BAILEY HAS argued all along that his association with Turner was that of a lawyer with a client He said he had nothing to do with the operations of the companies The government has accused the defendants of defrauding too numerous to by selling franchises in Turner-founded companies and then not supplying the necessary materials to allow the franchises to pay off The other defendants are Leroy Beale Ben Bunting Charles Cobb Jess Hickman and Hobart Wilder All defendants but Bailey from Boston are from the par Endorses Amendment For Inquiries on Judges Press Intemetlonel rules filling its vacancies and disqualifying members the committee itself would not perform these functions subject only to repeal by the high court For the first time the commission could by a majority vote recommend that the Su-preme Court suspend a judge against whom formal charges are pending If the Supreme Court suspends the judge then the record of the proceedings would become public Before the proceedings only became public after the judge was removed from office THE proposed amendment also permits the committee to investigate allegations of misconduct which may have occurred before the judge took office Such probes however can go back no further than Nov 1 1966 when the commission was created Alan Sundberg who reported on the amendment was asked by one member whether he was convinced these were all the revisions the commissions needed deem it sufficient revision as is appropriate at this Sundberg said know that answer the Youth Struck By Projectile ST PETERSBURG (UPI) A 14-year-old boy was wounded Thursday when he was struck in the back by a projectile from a pellet gun apparently fired by another 14-year-old youth Police said Brian Murphy was struck as he walked to school with his brother and another boy The pellet imbedded itself in his back just below the left shoulder and was removed at a hospital Police said they were looking for another youth who had been seen in the area using a pump-up pellet gun to shoot at signs That youth was reported to have been in minor trouble of some sort at school Police went to his home where the father said he had thought his son was in school When advised he was not in school the father also went looking for him Police said they did not know if the shooting was intentional or accidental State Democrats Meet in Orlando ORLANDO (UPI) A Florida Democratic Party grass -roots conference which will discuss delegate selection to the 1976 national convention will meet here today and Saturday Empty Tomb Is and bodies wait there for burud Tomb Peaceful? Just Ask Tenant TAMPA (AP) An empty tomb in a downtown cemetery has been the home of an elderly man with a long gray beard on and off for the past four years because he says dry and there waterproof and nobody is going to trouble a fella living in a says the proud 65-year-old man who goes only by the name of Phillip call it a receiving tomb They put the bodies in there before they're buried But they used it in a long says the oldtimer who does ground work there Old newspapers used to keep out the cool night air and old clothing are piled in the corner of the brick mausoleum-like tomb at Oaklawn Cemetery At night rock music wafts from the barred windows of Hillsborough County Jail across the street Phillip who wears a baggy suit much too large for his tiny frame says that when fortunate enough to find jobs doing yard work and fix-up chores some generous employers pay in free room and board He says he enjoys lazing around reading science fiction principal pastime is Phillip says be too active I have this neuralgia and indigestion And I guess a little lazy rather read than He considers himself a retiree and draws a $6250 monthly Social Security check Does it bother him to live in a cemetery? I kind of like he says know we all got to die kind of nice specialties on their business cards and in the yellow pages of the telephone book Preliminary results of the poll show attorneys overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal which would permit specialization in the legal profession similar to that which already -exists among doctors Authorized the special committee on credit cards to recommend changes in the rules of professional responsibility which would allow clients to pay for legal services with credit cards Because credit card companies advertise and charge interest lawyers are presently prohibited from accepting them in lieu of direct payments from clients Passed a resolution asking the governor to designate the first week of 1975 as voluntary abstention from drug abuse week a period which would include abstention from alcoholic beverages The constitutional amendment which was requested by the head of the Judicial Qualifications Committee gives the 13-member panel additional independence in its work Instead of the Florida Supreme Court making the By KAREN HELLER Herald Stafl Writer POMPANO BEACH The Florida board of governors Thursday unanimously endorsed a proposal to expand the investigative powers of the Judicial Qualifications Commission but objected to freeing it from the control of the Supreme Court The House Judiciary Committee has approved a proposed constitutional amendment which would allow the commission to delve into backgrounds as far back 1966 and would let it rather than the Supreme Court set its rules of procedure The board endorsed the thrust of the amendment but objected strongly to provisions that would lift the veto power over commission rules and reduce the vote needed to instigate disciplinary -action against a judge from two-thirds to a simple majority THE BOARD which is comprised of the elected representatives of all state lawyers also: Agreed to continue polling attorneys to see if they favor a plan that would permit lawyers to list their.