Relative of slaying victims opposes release of Briley brothers’ accomplice

A relative of three people killed by the Briley brothers gang has asked the Virginia Parole Board not to release the brothers' accomplice when board members begin voting next week.

"I have not healed, nor will I heal, nor will I forgive," said Robert Jones of Southlake, Texas, adding that he will travel to Richmond if that's what it takes to make himself heard.

He said he often stayed with his relatives and easily could have been there the night they were killed in Richmond three decades ago.

Jones' adamant opposition to parole for Duncan Eric Meekins comes as the two prosecutors who won convictions of all three Briley brothers and Meekins plan to speak on Meekins' behalf at a meeting Wednesday with a member of the parole board.

Warren Von Schuch, still a Richmond-area prosecutor, and attorney Robert J. Rice will emphasize Meekins' role as the key witness who brought down brothers Linwood, James and Anthony Briley.

That will leave the parole board to weigh the impact of an especially ruthless set of crimes, with the fact that one of the killers has the unlikely support of the prosecutors who put him away.

The Briley gang, which included the three brothers and Meekins, killed at least 11 people in Richmond and Henrico County during a rampage in 1979.

Fear again seized the area in 1984 when James and Linwood Briley led the largest successful escape from death row in U.S. history. They were captured after 19 days and later executed.

After police arrested all four gang members in October 1979, Von Schuch and Rice promised Meekins, in exchange for his testimony, that the prosecutors would support him when he came up for parole.

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Meekins, who was sentenced to life plus 100 years, has been imprisoned for nearly 30 years -- much longer than the prosecutors thought he would serve.

In the 1990s, parole was abolished for crimes that occurred on or after Jan. 1, 1995. The last killings attributed to the Briley gang took place Oct. 19, 1979.

That night, Meekins shot and killed Jones' uncle, Harvey W. Wilkerson, and James Briley fatally shot Judy Diane Barton, who was pregnant, and also the couple's 5-year-old son, Harvey Wayne Barton, in their home.

Meekins and two of the Brileys raped Barton before she was killed, Von Schuch said.

When Jones was a boy, he used to stay at that home on Barton Avenue in North Richmond every summer. If Jones hadn't had tonsillitis in 1979, he said, he likely would have been killed there too.

Jones, 43, said the elder Wilkerson was like a father to him, and he thinks of him every day. He said he can't stomach the thought that one of the killers could go free.

While the two lawyers' position on Meekins' release is unpopular, they credit Meekins' testimony with stopping the killing rampage and say they likely wouldn't have won the two death-penalty convictions without their star witness.

"We can't just say, 'Give us this and we'll throw you to the wolves,'" Rice said. "It's not a popular view, but it's what it took to get what we needed."

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Police arrested all four gang members three days after the triple murder on Barton Avenue. Soon after they were in custody, Meekins, then 16, started spilling details of numerous killings committed by the gang.

Anthony Briley, the youngest brother, avoided the electric chair because authorities had no evidence that he killed anyone. He is serving a term of life plus 139 years at the Powhatan Correctional Center.

The parole board has denied Anthony Briley parole 10 times, and he is up for consideration again later this year or early next year, said Michael M. Hawes, a member of the parole board.

Meekins, now 45, was convicted in Richmond and Henrico on three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of robbery. Although he was convicted for his role in three murders, he killed only one of those victims, authorities say.

Authorities say he also killed another man, Thomas Saunders, but he wasn't prosecuted on that case. The prosecutors didn't pursue every case.

Meekins is imprisoned in an undisclosed location outside Virginia under an assumed name. Those precautions were taken to protect him from other prisoners who might view him as a "snitch."

Members of Meekins' family have declined to comment. A family friend, Olga Jones, said, "They really talk about him a lot. They hope that he'll be able to get out soon."

Rice, now a criminal-defense lawyer, and Von Schuch, a special prosecutor in Chesterfield County, said Meekins has maintained good behavior and learned multiple trades in prison. They say it's unlikely he would kill again.

Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring said last week that the parole board should listen to the Briley-Meekins prosecutors, noting that Von Schuch is "certainly not regarded as an offenders' rights" prosecutor. Eleven men have been executed on convictions won by Von Schuch.

"I can fully understand how Meekins' assistance would have been integral to the success of that prosecution," Herring said. He added, "No one wants to be seen as soft on any murderer."

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Phyllis Rother is married to the nephew of another victim, Blanche Page. Linwood Briley bludgeoned to death the 75-year-old Page and also killed Charles W. Garner in their North Richmond home on Oct. 6, 1979. Meekins was convicted of murder in Garner's death.

"It's hard to say if he should be released or not," said Rother, 83, of Salem, N.H. "What if he went back to the old ways? It's been quite a few years, so maybe he has grown older and maybe he's wiser."

The parole board has denied Meekins parole six times from 1993 until his most recent hearing in 2008, Hawes said. Rice and a retired Richmond police investigator spoke on Meekins' behalf to a parole board member in 2007, Hawes said.

Board members vote on cases after a parole examiner interviews a prisoner and forwards the results of the interview to the board. The board also considers findings provided by a prison counselor.

The parole board's members, who are appointed by the governor, will finish voting on Meekins' case within about a month, Hawes said. Four of the five members must agree to grant parole for Meekins.

"These were absolutely horrible, horrible crimes," Hawes said. "Almost unthinkable crimes."

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or .