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October 19, 2004

Chesapeake teen pleads guilty to killing father

By JOHN HOPKINS, The Virginian-Pilot -- October 19, 2004

CHESAPEAKE — Shane Cubbage pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree murder and faces up to life in prison for killing his 43-year-old father last year.

The 18-year-old former Hickory High School student entered a conditional guilty plea in Chesapeake Circuit Court, where he was scheduled to stand trial this week for first-degree murder . Cubbage, 16 at the time of the crime, is to be sentenced in January.

He fatally shot his father, Forrest G. Cubbage , on May 5, 2003, in the family’s home in the 1500 block of Waterway Circle, off Centerville Turnpike .

Forrest Cubbage died from a single .38-caliber gunshot to the back of the head, prosecutors said.

During the hearing Monday, Shane Cubbage said little more than an occasional “yes, sir” when questioned by Circuit Judge V. Thomas Forehand Jr. The Eagle Scout and honor student told the judge he had finished the 11th grade and that he had worked at a McDonald’s restaurant and a pizza shop.

Cubbage’s conditional plea of guilty will allow him to appeal certain pretrial rulings to a higher court. In the appeal, Cubbage is expected to challenge a court ruling that precluded him from using allegations that he was sexually abused by his father.

Forehand ruled in September that Cubbage could not use the sexual abuse allegations and testimony from mental-health experts to prove “battered child syndrome” or to show how long-term effects of abuse factored into the killing.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Randall D. Smith said he doubts an appeal will be successful.

Exhibit 1 of the Commonwealth’s evidence was a signed letter found days after the killing in a shelter along the Appalachian Trail north of Roanoke. In the one-page letter, Cubbage wrote: “I murdered my own dad and had to run here in the mountains, but my mind isn’t capable of this. I want to die.”

If the case had gone to trial, forensic scientists would have testified that the letter matched Cubbage’s handwriting, Smith said. The prosecution also had a 52-page police confession.

If Cubbage wins an appeal, the case could be returned to Circuit Court for a trial that includes the allegations of abuse.

Smith and Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Lori B. Galbraith will seek the maximum punishment of life when Cubbage is sentenced in January. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors withdrew a charge of using a firearm in the commission of a crime.

In summarizing their case, Smith and Galbraith contend that Cubbage grew angry with his father’s insistence that he take part in household chores even through he had worked that day at the pizza shop. He also was upset with his father’s strict discipline, prosecutors said.

As his father worked on May 5, 2003, to put up wallpaper in the house, the teen walked up behind him with a revolver and fired the gun into the back of his head, according to prosecutors.

To insure his father’s death, Cubbage put a plastic bag over the victim’s head. He then submerged his father’s head in a bucket of water, prosecutors said.

He wrapped the body up in blankets and electrical cords, Smith said.

The day after the killing – with the body in the house – Cubbage invited friends over for a party, which included marijuana and alcohol, Smith said.

The next day, the teen fled west to the mountains of Virginia.

He returned home a day later and threw another party, which included more drugs and alcohol. His friends were unaware of the body during the two parties, Smith said.

Cubbage’s mother was on Navy deployment to the Middle East at the time of the murder.

Cubbage’s attorney, John Brown, was seeking to show a Chesapeake jury that his client was a victim himself, enduring several years of sexual abuse at home. Brown will get the opportunity to present such evidence during Cubbage’s sentencing hearing, which is scheduled to last three days.

According to Cubbage’s version of events, the abuse occurred from September 2001 until May 4, 2003, the day before the senior Cubbage was killed. The defense has argued that Cubbage was forced by his father to perform sexual acts against his will.

In addition, there were repeated incidents of psychological abuse against the teen, according to the defense.

The father also ordered his son to create a sexual videotape of himself. According to the defense, the father intended to use the video for his private viewing.

Killing his father – at least in the teen’s mind – was the only way to avoid bodily harm or threat of death, the defense had argued.

Cubbage suggested that the killing was self-defense.

Posted by Nealus at October 19, 2004 02:31 PM

Comments

This may be a nearly 7-year-old case, but the outcome is no less unjust than it was in 2004.

Personally, I wouldn't mind knowing how the trial wasn't a direct violation of the 6th and 14th Amendments. Last time I checked, victims of sexual abuse were afforded due process.

As though that isn't bad enough, the sexual and psychological abuse he endured for a year and a half (his motive for killing his father, of course) were precluded from being used in the preceedings.

May God have mercy on the souls of V. Thomas Forehand Jr. and Randall D. Smith for sending a victim of sexual abuse to prison...as much mercy as they granted Shane Cubbage, that is.

Posted by: Jamin Koehn at August 14, 2011 08:29 PM

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