Elmer Brunner

Case record

Status and outcome

Elmer David Brunner died on 3 April 1959. He was executed by electrocution on 3 April 1959 in "Old Sparky", the electric chair in the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville, West Virginia. West Virginia abolished the death penalty in 1965, and no one has been executed by West Virginia since Brunner's death.

Background

Elmer David Brunner was a convicted American murderer. He maintained his innocence despite confessing to the crime. Brunner was described as a Huntington odd jobs man and as a 39-year-old convict. An article stated that he had been sentenced to prison three times previously. Bruner was sought in connection with an armed robbery and two burglaries.

Brunner was one of six children of blind parents, and he had reached only the fifth grade in school.

The offence

On 27 May 1957, Ruby Miller was killed with the claw-end of a hammer during a burglary of her home in Huntington, West Virginia.

The killing occurred shortly before 11 a.m. on May 27, 1957, when Ruby Miller pulled into her driveway and heard suspicious noises coming from inside a bedroom. She armed herself with a shotgun and investigated the source of the sounds, which led to her murder.

Front page headlines of May 28, 1957 stated that a handyman and ex-convict named Elmer David Bruner had confessed to the May 27 bludgeoning-style murder of 58-year-old Ruby Miller, wife of a prominent local contractor, who lived at 2021 Washington Boulevard.

An article stated that Bruner admitted to breaking into the Miller home after cutting a screen in a window. It added that Bruner was ransacking a bedroom when he heard someone enter the house. Bruner told law enforcement officials that he opened the bedroom door and was confronted by Miller holding a shotgun. In his statement, Bruner said:

"he wrestled the gun from her and ‘picked up something and began hitting her with it.’"

An article stated that Miller was "brutally beaten with the claw end of a hammer." It added that her body "the skull crushed by more than a dozen blows and blood splattered on the bed and wall, was found in a guest bedroom of her home. A blood-stained hammer lay nearby."

Investigation and arrest

Bruner was arrested and charged after he was apprehended following a telephone tip. At the time Bruner was apprehended, police were unaware of the Miller murder. An article stated that when Bruner was arrested, he had the keys to a car stolen from the Miller home.

Bruner’s confession came after more than four hours of questioning by police detectives.

Trial

Bruner was indicted for the murder of Ruby Miller. He was brought to trial the week of June 28, 1957.

A trial took place before packed courtroom crowds and an all-male jury. The jury found Brunner guilty of murder in the first degree without a recommendation for mercy, making the death penalty mandatory.

Sentencing

Brunner was sentenced to death by electric chair. He was sentenced to the electric chair at the West Virginia Penitentiary on August 2, 1957.

Appeals

Bruner’s conviction was appealed twice to the Supreme Court of West Virginia and once to the United States Supreme Court. All of his appeals were rejected.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upheld his conviction. During the next several years, Brunner exhausted a series of appeals including an appeal for clemency from the governor.

Execution

The final date for Brunner’s execution was set for March 27, 1959. An article reported that:

"This was Good Friday so Gov. Underwood moved it to April 3, 1959."

Brunner was executed on 3 April 1959 by electrocution in "Old Sparky" at the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville, West Virginia.

Other details

Elmer Brunner was described as having the distinction of being the last person to be executed in West Virginia before the state abolished the death penalty in 1965.