CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Debra Rusnak said her office is diving into a 2020 quadruple homicide case feet first in hopes of securing a verdict that gives a family some semblance of justice.
Rusnak came on 580 Live this week joined by her assistant Adam Petry to talk about the long-awaited trial for 21-year-old Gavin Blaine Smith who was convicted in December 2022 after allegedly murdering four of his immediate family members.
Smith has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, and one count of using a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was granted mercy because of his juvenile status at the time the alleged murders took place, but he was tried as an adult.
Smith faces three life sentences with mercy with an additional 50 years.
Rusnak said her office got involved in the case when the Supreme Court claimed the Kanawha County Circuit Court made a mistake by “improperly informing the jury” regarding Smith’s first-degree murder conviction as it relates to his then-juvenile status.
“You know, back in 2020 when this case originated, my office prepared for trial and their were two co-defendants, one co-defendant took plea and the other wound up going to trial, but there were some issues with that, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict in that trial and has remanded that case for a new trial,” Rusnak said.
A new trial date in the case has been set for November 17 with a pretrial date of November 6.
Smith was convicted after reportedly shooting and killing his stepfather, Daniel Dale Long, 37, his mother, Risa Mae Saunders, 39, and his two brothers, Gage Ripley, 12, and Jameson Long, 3. Smith was 16 at the time the alleged shootings occurred at a residence on Cemetery Hill Drive in Elkview in 2020.
Smith’s girlfriend at the time, Rebecca Walker, was sentenced to 10 years in prison back in 2021 after pleading guilty to four counts of being an accessory after the fact of first degree murder. A plea agreement allowed the first-degree murder charges Walker was facing be dropped.
Walker, who was 17 at the time of the alleged murders, reportedly helped Smith hide out after the incident, and during previous testimony, Walker testified that she encouraged Smith to kill his family due to her frustrations that his family wouldn’t allow them to see each other.
According to the Supreme Court’s decision, Walker initially stated while testifying against Smith that she would have faced 20 years in prison if convicted on first-degree murder charges, but she later clarified that her plea agreement helped her avoid a sentence of life in prison, which is what a first-degree murder charge carries.
The Supreme Court’s decision stated that the Kanawha County Circuit Court was given the ability to provide the jury with instruction and clarification to Walker’s statement, and in this clarification, the jury learned that Smith would become eligible for parole after 15 years because of his juvenile status.
This was appealed by Smith’s attorneys, who stated that they felt as though it was not necessary for that fact to be brought up during jury instructions and deliberation.
Rusnak said this case has been a complicated and bumpy ride.
“No prosecutor ever wants to hear, well, the Supreme Court has remanded a case, you have to start all over, and so Mr. Petry and I are just now really getting involved in this because he and I did not handle the case initially, it was two prosecutors who no longer work at the office,” she said.
Petry added that while they were familiar with the case, they are just now fully starting to get involved.
“We’re kind of having to start at ground zero,” Petry said. “I was at the office during the time of the case’s inception, but I didn’t work on this case so just now getting into it as if it has just started, and we’ve started looking at the witness statements, looking at the files, reading transcripts, and familiarizing ourselves with the case as a whole.”
Rusnak said this has been an extremely high-profile case due to its horrific nature.
“It’s a horrible situation, I mean when you have any type of familial homicide, there’s no good outcome, no matter what.”