CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Supreme Court has reversed a Wyoming County murder conviction and sent the case back to the county for a new trial.
In an opinion handed down Thursday, the Supreme Court said that now retired Wyoming County Circuit Judge Warren McGraw erred when he allowed evidence be submitted in the 2017 murder trial of Oscar Combs Sr., that focused on a conviction Combs had in a separate Mercer County murder case.
Combs was charged with the 2013 death of Teresa Lynn Ford of Matoaka. Her remains were found near Combs’ home in the Wyoming County community of Bud. He was convicted in Wyoming County in 2017 of first degree murder and was sentence to spend the rest of his life in prison without the chance for parole.
But the Supreme Court reversed the conviction Thursday.
MORE Read Supreme Court opinion here
The Supreme Court opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Hutchison, said McGraw’s decision to allow evidence of Combs’ 2015 conviction in the 2011 death of Summers County resident James “Bo” Butler violated the West Virginia Rules of Evidence when it comes to the admission of prior bad acts into a trial.
Hutchison pointed to part of McGraw’s instructions to the jury prior to the information being introduced.
“The criminal history of the defendant shows evidence of misconduct and motive for
personal gain, proof of deliberate planning, proof of malice and premeditation,” McGraw told the jury.
Hutchison wrote the McGraw’s instruction was not only confusing but wrong.
“Because the trial court did not admit the 404(b) evidence of the petitioner’s convictions for robbery and murder of Mr. Butler for a specific and precise purpose and then gave the jury an improper limiting instruction regarding the reason the evidence was being admitted and the manner in which it could be considered, we find that the admission of the evidence was clear error,” Hutchison’s opinion said.
Combs, who is serving a life prison sentence for the Mercer County conviction, will now get a new trial in Wyoming County.