DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A death row inmate convicted of killing a Xenia teenager with a railroad spike in 1988 has requested a new trial.
58-year-old David Lee Myers has petitioned the Greene County Common Pleas Court to vacate his death sentence and to receive a new trial for the murder of 18-year-old Amanda Jo Maher.
This is on the grounds that his convictions and sentences are void as a result of errors, which includes the DNA found at the murder scene being shown to not be his, unreliable testimony and evidence and his death sentence being based on false, misleading and unreliable forensic science.
Court documents show that a woman was walking home with a friend around 3 a.m. on Aug. 4, 1988, when she discovered Maher laying near abandoned Xenia railroad tracks, gasping for air. Maher had a shirt pulled up around her neck with no other clothing on. A railroad spike was driven through the right side of her head, causing blood loss.
The woman called the police, and Maher was rushed to Greene Memorial Hospital. She died shortly after 6 a.m. while being life-flighted to Miami Valley Hospital.
Xenia police apprehended Myers later on the afternoon of Aug. 4, but he denied killing Maher. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996.
The state’s responses to the petition and motion are due on or before Sept. 1, according to our partners at the Xenia Gazette.
Myers is currently incarcerated at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Ross County, OH.
