Case could draw death penalty

Gary Michael Hilton may have escaped the death penalty in Georgia to find it awaiting him in North Carolina or federal courts.

The 61-year-old drifter pleaded guilty Jan. 31 in the killing of 24-year-old hiker Meredith Emerson in the north Georgia mountains. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole when he is 91.

Hilton avoided the death penalty through a plea agreement by telling authorities where they could find Emerson's body. But he cut no such deal in North Carolina.

Transylvania County officials have named Hilton as the prime suspect in the murders of Horse Shoe retirees John Bryant, 81, and Irene Bryant, 84. The couple disappeared Oct. 20 after going hiking near the Pink Beds picnic area and the Cradle of Forestry, two of Pisgah National Forest's popular attractions.

Transylvania County authorities discovered Irene Bryant's body Nov. 9 off Yellow Gap Road near where the couple had gone to hike after a long search involving dozens of volunteers and professionals. She had been beaten to death. John Bryant's skeletal remains were found Feb. 3 in an illegal dump on the Nantahala National Forest near Franklin.

The spot where the body was dumped was on a route between the Pisgah area and Ducktown, Tenn., where someone had tried to use the Bryant's stolen ATM card Oct. 22. Witnesses in Ducktown told a Times-News reporter on Jan. 12 they had seen Hilton in the area about that time.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would investigate the Bryant's murders. Federal authorities aren't discussing whether they will prosecute, seek the federal death penalty or any other details of the case.

Rarely invoked

Just because the murders happened on federal lands and federal investigators have started a probe does not mean they will take over prosecution. But in a handful of past cases, the United States has sought the federal death penalty for murders committed on national forests.

In March 2002, Marvin Gabrion was sentenced to death for a 1997 murder in Michigan's Manistee National Forest. Gabrion was sentenced under the federal system because the victim was killed on federal lands, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, an organization opposed to capital punishment. It was the first time a federal death sentence was imposed on a defendant in a state without a death penalty since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988.

The federal death penalty has been rarely invoked since then and even more rarely carried out. Among 60 inmates nationwide sentenced to death under the federal statutes, only three, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, have been put to death. Three others had their sentences reduced or reversed on appeal. At least two other cases involving slayings in Western North Carolina national forests or parks have been tried in state courts.

Federal death case:The Styles murder

Even in cases where crimes are committed on federal lands, state courts often take the first shot at trying and convicting defendants. A notorious case in Western North Carolina is that of Buncombe County resident Richard Allen Jackson's 1993 rape and murder of jogger Karen Styles in Bent Creek Recreation Area in Pisgah National Forest.

Jackson was tried and convicted in Buncombe County for the kidnapping and murder of Styles in 1994. The conviction was overturned and Jackson later pleaded guilty to second degree murder. Federal authorities took another run at the case, convicting Jackson on May 7, 2001, for using a firearm on federal property in a felony that resulted in the death of the victim. He was sentenced to death under the federal statutes and is listed among 54 federal death row inmates, although he remains incarcerated in Central Prison in Raleigh pending appeals.

Jackson's case is among three involving killings on federal lands. The others are Gabrion's 1997 case in Michigan, and the Oklahoma case of Edward Fields. The former prison guard was convicted in 2005 of the murder of two campers in the Quachita National Forest while wearing a homemade sniper suit. A federal judge sentenced him to death Nov. 8, 2005, according to the Associated Press.

May the strongest law apply

Whether a case involving homicide on federal lands is first tried in state or federal courts depends on a complex set of variables. Such cases involve what is known as "concurrent jurisdiction" where both federal and state officials hold authority.

When a homicide is committed in a national forest, park or Indian reservation, law officers from both state and federal agencies usually meet to compare notes, except in certain cases where the federal government has clear jurisdiction. Examples include federal gun laws, such as the one used to convict Jackson in Styles' kidnapping and death. Federal authorities also may supersede state jurisdiction in cases involving Internet sexual predators of children and civil rights.

No public evidence has come to light as yet indicating that Hilton used a firearm against his victims. Witnesses in Georgia reported seeing him in the woods with an expandable police baton. A search of Hilton's Chevy Astro by Georgia authorities uncovered blood stains, piles of outdoor clothing, camping gear and a license plate stolen from Transylvania County. Potential weapons discovered included two black batons and air powered BB gun.

Clamping down

Since joining the investigation this week, federal authorities have clamped down on the information they, state or local authorities will discuss about the Bryant case. In coming weeks they will be meeting to determine which jurisdiction holds the strongest cards to try and convict a man described as a menacing loner and suspected as a multi-state serial killer.

Federal, local and state authorities "are diligently working together to follow every credible lead, and to fully investigate every prospective piece of evidence," said Gretchen C.F. Shappert, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. That includes authorities in North Carolina and Georgia as well as Florida, where Hilton is a suspect in another killing on the Apalachicola National Forest.

"There are many tasks yet to be accomplished in this investigation, including complete and detailed forensic examinations of evidence obtained in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida," Shappert said. "Any announcements of decisions made before this investigation is complete could damage any future prosecution. Only with a full investigation can we guarantee the Bryants that justice will be fully and finally dealt to the perpetrator of these heinous crimes."