Pagans' member murder trial ends in guilty verdict, no mercy

Apr. 6—FAIRMONT — On Wednesday, Marion County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Sean Murphy showed the jury photos police took of Henry Silver's body after he was gunned down by men in black ski masks in 2022.

Members of Silver's family wept in the front row. On Friday, the jury gave them justice with a guilty verdict.

The jury found John Lee Wolfe guilty of conspiring to murder Silver on the night of Sept. 9, 2022. The state accused members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club of killing Silver in the parking lot of the Carolina Arbors, in Carolina. Murphy proved to the jury's satisfaction that Wolfe's motive for organizing the hit was infidelity between Silver and Wolfe's partner, Megan Ball.

The jury also recommended Wolfe be given no mercy at sentencing. Mercy would make Wolfe eligible for parole after 15 years. Jurors took between 30-45 minutes to reach a verdict in both phases.

"The evidence is overpowering, overwhelming," Murphy said during his closing arguments. "It's weight would crush Atlas himself. It weighs down on Wolfe and cries out for a verdict of guilt."

Mention of a security concern was made at the beginning of the trial. At the end, Marion County Circuit Court Judge David Janes told jurors they could request to have a police officer escort them to their cars. Two jurors took him up on the offer. Janes then held members of the gallery inside the courtroom for 10 minutes, until the jury had a chance to depart the premises.

No one else had motive, Murphy said. He urged jurors not to believe in coincidence. Returning to the text messages between Wolfe and Ryan Lane, president of the Pagans chapter Wolfe belonged to, Murphy wielded his smoking gun. Wolfe asked Lane to keep his phone on 10 minutes before the shooting took place. This followed several admonitions by Wolfe and Lane that Silver would be "handled."

Murphy also returned to Wolfe's police statement he made after his arrest on Oct. 20, 2022. The veteran prosecutor checked Wolfe's statement against phone records, texts and eyewitnesses and found 25 separate inconsistencies. He pointed this out to the jury one final time.

"Lies, lies, lies and more lies," Murphy said.

Murphy also brought up how the culture of the violent motorcycle gang enabled Silver's murder.

He pointed out how the Pagans view themselves as outlaws from society, unbound by the laws meant to protect regular people from violence. "All on one, one on all," the Pagan mantra goes. "If you don't think this way, you're just a citizen and you don't belong." Pagans view the rest of society as chattel and pieces of property. The Pagans themselves admit who they are through their symbols and club art, Murphy said. Believe them, he added.

"No face no case," Murphy said. "No one talks, everybody walks." Later, Murphy said, "Well, Wolfe walked right into irrefutable, irredeemable guilt."

Wolfe's attorney, Scott Alan Shough, made a final plea for his client. He told jurors being a member of a motorcycle club is not a crime. He told jurors they would violate their oath if they had already pre-determined the trial's outcome based on Wolfe's membership in the Pagans.

Moreover, Shough tried to reframe the texts Murphy used to make his case. Shough showed jurors a text from Wolfe to Zena Carpenter, Silver's partner, after Carpenter revealed Ball was cheating on Wolfe with Silver. Shough said Wolfe's response to Carpenter was a telling reaction to receiving the news.

"We need to flip the tables on them," Wolfe wrote. "What you look like?"

No hint of violence, no hint Wolfe treated Ball as his own personal property, Shough said. On Thursday, Murphy presented evidence showing the Pagans consider women property. Instead, Wolfe's first impulse was to counter cheat. Furthermore, later texts show that Wolfe was resigned to the end of the relationship and was ready to move on from Ball. Shough also pointed out that on the night of the killing, Wolfe had the opportunity to beat up Silver when Silver showed up to Ball's apartment intoxicated. He didn't.

As for the testimony of ZW, the minor who was a witness to events inside the apartment as the shooting took place, Shough reminded jurors of all the contradictions he found in ZW's testimony between the child's statement collected two weeks after the shooting and the trial, taking place nearly two years later.

"ZW is simply not credible in anything he said on Wednesday," Shough said in his closing.

Wolfe also told ZW to get down after the shooting started, Shough said. If Wolfe had foreknowledge of the kill, why did he not tell the three children inside the apartment building to get down before the shooting started, Shough asked.

Shough relied on there being no explicit order to kill Silver from Wolfe as Wolfe's main defense. Euphemisms to "deal with Silver" do not equal kill this person, Shough said.

"The person who is responsible for Silver's death is the person who pulled the trigger," Shough said. "John is not that person."

None of the defense's counternarratives found purchase with the jury. They convicted Wolfe of murder in the first degree, conspiracy to commit a felony and use or presentation of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The murder charge carries a life sentence.

During the mercy phase of the trial, Shough tried to advocate once more on behalf of his client. He brought in a long time friend of Wolfe's, Kendra Batson, who testified he was a good father who took his and her children camping. Wolfe held down jobs as a coal miner, mechanic and other roles in order to provide for his children. Batson wept for her friend on the stand, calling him a family man and an amazing dad.

Murphy hanged Wolfe's actions on Batson's words.

"Is it amazing to hurt people?" Murphy said in his cross. "Is it amazing and wonderful to take a father from his four children?"

Batson's reply to each question was a single syllable word. No.

Murphy so excoriated Batson on the stand that Shough declined to bring in his next witness on Wolfe's behalf. Shough's final words to the jury was a plea to allow Wolfe to better himself while in custody. Parole would be a powerful incentive to behave and give Wolfe a reason to grow.

As he delivered his closing arguments on the question of mercy, Murphy brought up another case he tried in court. The defendant was alleged to have said, "mercy is just a word and there's no mercy here," before beating the victim half to death. Wolfe's actions were calculated, deliberate and designed to send a message to everyone in Carolina, Murphy said. Wolfe did this in front of children, Murphy said, to let everyone know who the Pagans are.

Making it only fitting that the jury treat mercy as just a word, Murphy urged, and show none to Wolfe.

Sentencing is in two months.

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com