Stamper v. Commonwealth

The evidence adduced against Stamper was entirely circumstantial. On Saturday, March 25, 1978, Richard Wrenn, who worked as a breakfast cook at Shoneys Restaurant in Henrico County on Saturdays and Sundays, came to work at approximately 6:35 a.m. He found that the glass in the lower part of the front door had been shattered and glass was scattered on the sidewalk outside the door. Wrenn crawled through the door and discovered the bodies of Steven Staples, the morning manager, and Agnes Hicks, the morning waitress, both of whom had been shot and killed. He noticed that the office safe was open and that it contained change but no currency. Wrenn notified the police and called an ambulance. Other evidence disclosed that Franklin D. Cooley, the janitor, also had been found shot; he had been removed to a hospital where he died several hours later without regaining consciousness.