Gina Spann

Case record: Gina Spann

Status

Gina Spann pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole on November 21, 1997.

Background

Gina Spann was the wife of Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Leroy Spann. Kevin Leroy Spann lived at his home at 3805 Old Waynesboro Road.

The killing was connected to life insurance policies on Kevin Leroy Spann’s life. Mrs. Spann was the beneficiary of a military life insurance policy worth $200,000 and a civilian policy worth $100,000.

Police said Spann was accused of luring teen-agers into killing her husband for insurance money, and investigators believed her conduct was intended to enable financial gain from life insurance policies.

The offence

Murder plot and direction

Spann admitted she took part in the May 11 slaying of her husband, Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Leroy Spann.

Spann admitted she directed three teen-age boys to kill Kevin Leroy Spann.

Police described a plot in which Spann directed or devised the assassination plan, including manipulating teen-age boys and providing drugs and alcohol.

Victim

Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Leroy Spann, 35, died on Mother’s Day.

Deputy Coroner Grover Tuten said Kevin Leroy Spann was pronounced dead at 11:40 p.m. at his home at 3805 Old Waynesboro Road from gunshot wounds.

Police said Spann’s husband was shot once in his face and once in his chest.

Location

The slaying occurred at Kevin Leroy Spann’s home at 3805 Old Waynesboro Road (described as an Old Waynesboro Road home).

Police said the earlier attempt involved the Spanns’ home and the Royal Palms Motel on Peach Orchard Road was used in connection with picking up and dropping off the teen-age suspects.

Investigation

Prior attempt

Police said there was an unsuccessful attempt on May 10 to get Staff Sgt. Spann to come to his door.

On the unsuccessful attempt, investigators said Gerald Horne and Matthew Piazzi stole Staff Sgt. Spann’s car and shot into a window of the south Augusta home.

Arrests and investigation details

After the killing, Spann was arrested along with Larry Wayne Kelley, 18.

Investigators also arrested Gerald Lewis Horne, 18; Matthew Clark Piazzi, 17; and Christopher Lee Bargeron, 17 (or 16 in some accounts).

Police believed Kelly contacted Bargeron, who referred him to Piazzi and Horne.

Investigators believed Horne and Piazzi were offered $5,000 each from the life insurance money if they would kill Staff Sgt. Spann.

The weapon used to kill Kevin Spann was a .38-caliber handgun.

Early Monday, Piazzi led police to a .38-caliber gun hidden in a field near Amoco Polymer. The gun had no serial number, and police did not know yet to whom the gun belonged or where the boys got it.

Police said the gun they believed killed Mr. Spann belonged to the Kelleys’ stepfather, David Best.

Drug and motive allegations

Investigators and witnesses described drug involvement. Michael Kelley said Spann was giving the boys acid, alcohol and marijuana.

Police said several people interviewed told them Spann provided drugs to young people, including the suspects in her husband’s death.

Police said that when the teen-agers were arrested several hours after the killing, they were not high on drugs.

Burglary and related events

Larry Kelley, Horne, and Piazzi were questioned about a recent burglary at the south Augusta home of the Kelleys’ parents. Police said no one had been charged with that burglary.

Chief Deputy Ronald Strength said the burglary involved some jewelry and a .38-caliber revolver.

Chief Deputy Strength said the burglary occurred before the slaying and that David Best did not know the gun was missing until police asked him about it after the murder.

Police said after the burglary, a car fitting the description of Spann’s was seen leaving the area.

Trial scheduling and court proceedings of others

Police said Bargeron, Piazzi and Horne were scheduled to stand trial Dec. 1.

Because Bargeron’s case was separated and he filed a request for a speedy trial, only Bargeron was expected to stand trial that week.

Bargeron was representing himself on murder charges.

Arrest

Spann was arrested the day after the Mother’s Day shooting along with Larry Wayne Kelley.

The teen-age suspects were arrested after questioning and were held pending court proceedings:

• Piazzi and Horne were arrested at the Royal Palms Motel on Peach Orchard Road early Monday and were held without bond at the Youth Detention Center on Monday night.
• Additional arrests included Gerald Lewis Horne, Matthew Clark Piazzi, and Christopher Lee Bargeron.

Plea and sentencing

Guilty plea and sentencing for Gina Spann

On November 21, 1997, Spann pleaded guilty to malice murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

The plea agreement spared Spann from a death penalty trial in Richmond County Superior Court.

Spann was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus five years.

Spann’s plea admission included that she caused or directed another person to commit the May 11 slaying of Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Leroy Spann.

Appeal rights and plea agreement terms

District Attorney Danny Craig stated that the plea negotiation specifically stated that Spann was giving up her right to any appeal and that if she attempted to challenge her conviction and sentence, the plea deal would be off and she would stand trial on capital murder charges.

Aftermath

Motion to reduce sentence and outcome

Three months after taking the life-without-parole prison sentence, Spann was back in court with a legal argument that her sentence was too harsh.

Judge Bernard J. Mulherin Sr. was presented with a defense motion to modify Spann’s sentence of life without parole.

Defense attorneys Maureen Floyd and Richard Ingram protested, contending the motion was not ready to be heard.

Ingram stated the motion was filed in case the General Assembly or courts someday decided life without parole is unconstitutional and should be abolished, and that if that happened Spann should be allowed to challenge the sentence.

District Attorney Danny Craig argued against allowing the motion to remain pending changes in the law.

Craig asked Judge Mulherin to dismiss the motion or nullify Spann’s plea and sentence and allow the state to try Spann.

Judge Mulherin dismissed the motion, explaining that it was moot.

Mulherin said that if it was decided someday that life without parole was unconstitutionally harsh, then Spann’s sentence and other prisoners’ sentences without parole would automatically become life with the possibility of parole.

Co-defendants and related cases

Four teen-agers were prosecuted in Richmond County Superior Court for Staff Sgt. Spann’s slaying:

• Larry Kelley, 19, was tried and convicted of murder and was serving a life sentence plus five years. Police said he twice tried to carry out Spann’s murder plots so she could collect $300,000 in life-insurance policies. The reporting also said he and Spann were having an affair.
• Matthew Piazzi, 17, pleaded guilty to murder and was serving a life sentence. Reporting said he was the triggerman who agreed to kill Staff Sgt. Spann the night before the murder and was to receive $8,000 from the insurance money.
• Gerald Horne, 18, pleaded guilty and was serving a life sentence. Reporting said he agreed to kill Staff Sgt. Spann for $7,000 and was present when the soldier was gunned down on his front porch.
• Christopher Bargeron, 18, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and received a five-year prison sentence followed by a five-year probationary sentence. Reporting said Bargeron failed, along with Kelley, to kill Staff Sgt. Spann, but Bargeron helped find Piazzi and Horne to do the slaying.

In one account, Christopher Bargeron was described as 16 and scheduled for a Dec. 1 trial.

In another account, a separate set of co-defendants was described with ages including Christopher Bargeron, 16, and Larry Wayne Kelley as Spann’s live-in teenage boyfriend.

Other details

Names and ages mentioned in connection with the offence

Spann was described with varying ages in different accounts: 32, 31, and 31.

Kevin Leroy Spann was described as 35.

Spann’s live-in teenage boyfriend was described as Larry Wayne Kelley, 18, and in one account Michael Kelley described Larry as his brother. Michael Kelley was 20.

Motel and car movements

Police said the Royal Palms Motel on Peach Orchard Road was where Larry Kelley and Spann picked up Horne and Piazzi May 10 to drop them off at Spann’s house when they tried to kill Kevin Spann, but he would not come to the door.

Police said the next day, Larry Kelley and Spann picked up the boys again at the motel and dropped them off, and they succeeded in gunning down Kevin Spann.

Police said that when Kevin Spann answered the door, Piazzi fired a .38-caliber handgun twice, shooting him in the face and chest.

Burial or prior insurance fraud background discussed

The reporting also described an earlier alleged murder-for-insurance-money scam involving Fort Gordon Pvt. Kenneth Barnes, 19, from Ohio, who was shot to death 25 years earlier.

In that earlier case, the body was reportedly made to look like an accident involving someone else, and for years people believed a buried body was that of an Augusta Quarry worker John Owens.

The reporting said Nellie Owens collected on her husband’s life insurance and that the couple enjoyed spending it before getting caught.

The reporting said a tip led to a 1982 exhumation and return of the body to the Barnes family after police exhumed a body from the Hillcrest Cemetery.

The reporting stated Martinez couple John and Nellie Owens and a former Fort Gordon police officer were charged, given prison sentences, and fined thousands of dollars.

The reporting included statements from district attorney’s investigator Quentin Conway, Chief Deputy Sidney Hatfield, special agent in charge Brian Stamper, and Augusta attorney Steve Curry, about insurance fraud and investigative procedures.

Quotations

Chief Deputy Ronald Strength said: “She (Mrs. Spann) had time to change her mind.”

“No crime juveniles commit surprises me anymore because they have access to weapons and will use them.°.°.°”

Michael Kelley said: “She asked me to do it in the beginning of January...She said she had this idea to get her husband out of the way. I told her I was trying to stay out of trouble,”

Michael Kelley said: “I think he thought he was in love with her. I think the fact that she was older and she could give him stuff he couldn't get, like drugs, and she was sleeping with him...and (it was) a place to stay.”

Michael Kelley said: “She was giving him and the other boys acid, alcohol and marijuana,”

Michael Kelley said: “She said she and her husband had an open marriage, and that if I was there when he woke up in the morning, he would just step over me and everybody else - that he was used to it.”

Michael Kelley said: “I think she just kept getting them high until they were in the right state of mind....When you're high, you get the feeling that you can't get caught and you feel invincible,”

Michael Kelley said: “They were all old enough to know better, but they were still kids....very impressionable,”

Michael Kelley said: “I think my brother deserves to do some time for his role so he can learn a lesson....He's young. I hope he will get out and have enough time to live a good life and do things right.

“I think she deserves the electric chair. She messed up five lives - including her son's because now he doesn't have a mother or a father.

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