‘Railroad Spike Killer’ off death row, granted new trial in teen’s death

GREENE COUNTY, Ohio (Court TV) — An Ohio man dubbed the “railroad spike killer” has been released from death row and placed on house arrest while awaiting a new trial.

FILE – David Lee Myers (Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

David Lee Myers, 59, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the killing of 18-year-old Amanda Jo Maher. The teen mother of an 8-month-old was “found barely alive near the railroad tracks on the south side of Xenia,” according to court documents . She had a railroad spike in her temple, and “had a shirt pulled up around her neck with no other clothing on.” An autopsy revealed she had three stones in her vaginal canal.

According to witnesses and police, Myers and Maher were seen leaving a bar together after Maher’s boyfriend was arrested for disorderly conduct. Myers told an arresting officer and the victim’s boyfriend he would take care of her and make sure she got home.

Multiple witnesses pinned Myers as the last person to be seen with Maher. A witness who encountered Myers after Maher was last seen, told police he asked him “if he got any (sex) from Maher,” to which he replied, “he tried, but she wasn’t willing and he just dropped her off.” At the time of Maher’s death, Myers was on probation for sexual battery.

Myers was initially arrested and indicted in Aug. 1988. In Feb. 1991, prosecutors dismissed the indictment. A month later, he was arraigned on multiple counts of forgery, to which he pled guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison.

In Feb. 1993, Myers was indicted again in Maher’s murder. He was convicted at his 1996 trial and sentenced to death.

Earlier this year, Myers’ defense filed a motion to vacate his death sentence after new DNA was discovered on the railroad spike and one of the rocks collected from Maher’s body. DNA from an unidentified male was also found on a cigarette butt collected at the crime scene.

In Aug., a judge granted Myers a new trial, stating, “the Court finds that the newly discovered evidence possesses significant probative value such that there exists a strong probability that the jury would have reached a different verdict had the new evidence been available at trial.” Myers was released on house arrest.

The case is due back in court for a pretrial conference call on Nov. 22.