CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A status hearing is scheduled Friday in Kanawha County Circuit Court for a man that was released from state prison and moved to the South Central Regional Jail this week after a federal judge ruled he needed to be released or retried for a crime committed in Charleston in 1987.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit is expected to set bond for Jimmie Garner, 49, a former Charleston Wheelers minor league baseball player.
Gardner was convicted in 1989 and has been serving prison time ever since for charges of burglary, robbery and sexual assault in Kanawha City. He was sentenced to spend up to 110 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman and beating her elderly mother.
But last week, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin ordered the state to either retry Gardner or release him within 60 days.
He was convicted due to much of the testimony from former State Police crime serologist Fred Zain. He cited lab test results saying Gardner could not be ruled out as a suspect in the case, but a 1993 order from the Supreme Court said Zain lied about his findings. That order re-opened about 190 other criminal cases that were discredited. He was then charged with fraud, but died in 2002.
Gardner’s case was looked at again. It was determined that his blood type did not match the person who committed the crime. A new hearing was ordered, but never acted upon, so Judge Goodwin filed last week’s order.
Friday’s hearing is set for 11:30 a.m.