'He needs to own this': Victim's family speaks against killer's motion to modify sentence

David Glen Appleby’s supporters say he has a stellar prison record over the past 27 years, and has become a better man. Warren Steven “Stevie” Slayman's family is still grief-stricken and wondering what his life would have been like during that time, had Appleby not taken it.

Washington County Circuit Court Administrative Judge Brett R. Wilson heard impassioned pleas from both sides Tuesday during a two-hour hearing on Appleby’s motion to modify his sentence of life in prison plus 15 years.

Wilson said he would craft a written ruling to be announced during an Aug. 9 hearing.

“It is a momentous decision to make that affects the lives of so many,” he said.

Appleby, 45, who was 17 at the time of the July 27, 1994, killing, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and use of a handgun in a crime of violence.

His Feb. 2 motion for reconsideration of his sentence was filed under Maryland's Juvenile Restoration Act, which took effect in October and allows defendants who committed their offense as juveniles to seek modification of their sentence if they have served at least 20 years. Gov. Larry Hogan's veto of the act was overridden by the General Assembly.

Appleby's motion states, among other things, that he had experienced extreme trauma in childhood, was using drugs and alcohol heavily and lacked maturity and good judgment. It states that he has since matured and made excellent progress, including earning a GED and receiving excellent performance evaluations for his institutional jobs such as training service dogs for disabled veterans.

Slayman's sister, Gretchen Bridendolph, noted that her brother would have turned 55 the day before the hearing and told Wilson that she had "nothing but indignation" about Appleby's motion.

"Stevie doesn't get a retrial, no matter how many dogs this murderer has trained," she said through tears.

Bridendolph said that her brother was her friend and confidant who loved children and made everyone laugh.

Her children were never blessed with knowing their Uncle Stevie, she said, whom she misses every day.

She said his murder has shaken her faith in humanity, and she now finds it difficult to trust people and feel safe.

"Please don't allow my brother's murderer to go free when the victims have no life left," Bridendolph said to Wilson.

Earlier:'It's always there': Years of hearings in murder case reopen wounds

In West Virginia:Jury recommends no parole for Hagerstown men convicted in Martinsburg woman's death

An account of Appleby's sentencing published in the June 30, 1995, edition of The Daily Mail reports that a prosecutor had earlier recounted the facts of the case. Slayman met Appleby on Antietam Street in Hagerstown and offered him a ride home.

They stopped to talk near a large drainage culvert along Clevelandtown Road east of Boonsboro, where Appleby told police that Slayman made an unwelcome advance and gave him his name and telephone number.

Later that same morning, Appleby called and asked Slayman to meet him at the bridge on Clevelandtown Road so he could give him a surprise. Appleby armed himself with a handgun, apparently planning to rob Slayman and steal his 1993 Chevrolet Cavalier, a model Appleby's ex-girlfriend was fond of. Appleby's motive was also partly revenge for the earlier encounter, according to the report.

When Slayman arrived, they walked under the culvert and Appleby allegedly pointed the gun at him and demanded his car keys and wallet, which contained $16, the report states.

Appleby then shot him once in the chest and twice in the head, authorities said.

After Slayman's family reported him missing that afternoon, evidence led police to Appleby and he was arrested at a friend's house in Frederick, Md. He told police that he had driven Slayman's car to several friends' homes in Frederick County to show it off, the news report states.

"This was a planned, premeditated hate crime," Bridendolph said.

She noted that official reports in the case show that her brother was shot around 11 a.m., and that his time of death was listed as 9:30 p.m.

Bridendolph said she can't forgive and forget, knowing that her brother lay wounded in the culvert for all that time. She also wondered if he could have been saved.

Slayman's other sister, Angela Fulton, told Wilson that Appleby should remain in prison for life.

"People this broken can't be fixed," she said.

Fulton described her brother as a caring, helpful Sunday school teacher who collected music boxes and was a history buff.

"He was curious and attached to life," she said. "He loved his life."

Fulton said the ongoing parole and other hearings in the case reopen her and her sister's wounds "every time Mr. Appleby tries to buck his responsibility."

"Mr. Appleby needs to face the sentence," she said. "He needs to own this."

Appleby apologized to Slayman's sisters for taking their brother's life and said "there's not a day goes by that I don't regret that decision." 

He told Wilson that at the time of the killing he was an "irrational, immature, broken child."

"I stand before you now a much better man, not completely healed, but a much better man," he said.

"If I'm given a second chance, I promise I will do this court and my family proud."

Appleby's stepfather, Robert Stone, asked Wilson to give him another chance, and said that he could get Appleby a job with his employer if he is released.

"I've seen a big change, a great change since he's been incarcerated," he said. "He's turned into a better man."

Former inmate Michael Williams said he became friends with Appleby while they worked together in the VetDogs program before Williams was paroled two years ago.

"I'll do anything I can to help him," Williams said. "I think he is a good person."

Defense attorney Elizabeth L. Franzoso said that Appleby struggled with depression and substance abuse at the time of his incarceration, but has since become sober and is in therapy and taking medication.

Franzoso said Appleby is remorseful about making a snap decision as a juvenile unable to realize the consequences of his actions.

"He made a terrible, rash decision," Franzoso said. "The worst decision of his life."

State's Attorney Gina Cirincion noted that Appleby made statements to police that "I took the gun so I could shoot him," and that "he fell to the ground and I aimed at his head and shot him again."

"That is not a snap decision," Cirincion said. "This was a cool, calculated plan formed by this defendant a week (before) his 18th birthday."

Cirincion said the state opposed Appleby's motion to modify his sentence, and that it isn't justified by his progress in prison.

She said that Slayman's parents, Elissa Slayman and John Slayman, the former mayor of Williamsport, "grieved until the day they died," and that the ongoing hearings in the case for his sisters are "like a Band-Aid ripped off the wound."