Man pleads guilty to murder

A murder trial that began Thursday morning with outbursts from the defendant ended before lunch with a Tasing and guilty pleas.

Robert Charles Gleason Jr., 38, pleaded guilty in Amherst County Circuit Court to the first-degree murder of Michael Kent Jamerson of Madison Heights, whose body was found near Virginia 130 in May 2007.

Gleason had been scheduled for a two-day murder trial, but the jury had not been selected before he told Judge Michael Gamble, “Let’s just get this over with ... let’s just get this over with today.”

Gleason’s plea came after he used a string of profanities to denounce the court on Thursday morning, pushed a bailiff, and tried to walk out of the courtroom and into a secure hallway that leads to a holding cell, Amherst County Sheriff Jimmy Ayers said.

Gleason continued being belligerent and was Tasered by one of the officers, Ayers said. He was brought back into the courtroom a short time later and entered the plea without consulting his appointed attorney, Greg Smith.

Gamble repeatedly asked Gleason if he would like additional time to consider his decision to plead to the charge and each time Gleason refused.

“I’m going to die in the joint anyways,” Gleason told Gamble. Gleason later requested to be taken out of the courtroom as prosecutors began entering evidence they would have presented during a trial.

“I can’t sit here and listen to this,” Gleason said as he was escorted out of the courtroom.

A turkey hunter found Jamerson’s body in a wooded area along Virginia 130 on May 9, Amherst County Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Maddox said. An autopsy showed he was shot four times — twice in the head and twice in his torso.

Maddox said Thursday that Jamerson, Gleason, and a female were in the western part of Amherst County on May 8 trying to buy methamphetamine when Jamerson asked the woman to pull the car over so he could relieve himself.

When Jamerson got out of the car, Gleason followed him into the woods, Maddox said. Gleason then took from Jamerson the .40 caliber gun he carried in a holster on the small of his back and shot him once in the right temple, once in the right cheek, once in the chest, and once in the abdomen.

The woman told prosecutors she heard shots before Gleason returned to the car with the gun and threatened her not to tell anyone what happened. The woman then drove Gleason across a nearby bridge, where he threw the gun out the window, Maddox said.

A Liberty University student, who was fishing along the bank of the James River, found the gun several days later — three miles from Jamerson’s body.

Gleason told Amherst investigators that he’d shot Jamerson over failure to make payments on drugs, Maddox said.

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Cary Payne told the court that Gleason was in the Middle River Regional Jail in Augusta County when he

dictated a letter to another inmate providing details about Jamerson’s death that were previously unpublished by the media. That letter was later turned over to investigators.

Gleason is scheduled for sentencing on June 5. He faces up to life in prison for the first-degree murder and a mandatory three years for using a firearm in the commission of a felony.