Inmate who asked for death penalty awaits trial

RICHMOND — A Virginia inmate who had pleaded guilty to killing his cellmate and vowed to again unless sentenced to death rescinded his plea Tuesday and will go to trial next year.

Robert Gleason Jr., 40, was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for the May 2009 death of Harvey Watson Jr., but a judge who recently took over the case wanted Gleason to reenter his plea. Gleason pleaded not guilty instead, and a trial is set to begin Feb. 21.

Gleason was serving life at Wallens Ridge State Prison for the May 8, 2007, murder of Michael Kent Jamerson in Amherst County.

Gleason fired his attorneys and pleaded guilty in May, saying in court and in an interview with The Associated Press that he would kill again if not given the death penalty.

Prosecutors say Gleason killed another inmate, 26-year-old Aaron Cooper, last month, strangling Cooper while the two were in separate but adjoining outdoor recreation cages at Red Onion State Prison. Gleason was transferred to that supermax prison after Watson’s death.

In letters to AP, Gleason admitted killing both inmates. He has not been charged in Cooper’s death because an investigation is still under way, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Adrian Collins said.

Gleason did not say in court Tuesday why he wanted to change his plea, Collins said. The judge appointed attorneys to represent Gleason, but they did not return calls seeking comment.

Gleason has said he wants to put corrections officers and prison employees on the stand because he blames them for Watson’s death. Gleason says he complained to staff for a week about his new cellmate’s obnoxious behavior — the 63-year-old Watson had a history of mental illness — but that they refused to separate the inmates.

“Mr. Watson should never of died,” Gleason told the AP in an interview in May. “Wallens Ridge forced my hand.”

Just after midnight on May 8, 2009, Gleason said he bound Watson’s hands and arms to his body using pieces of bed sheets and fashioned a gag out of two socks. He later removed the gag to give Watson a cigarette, and he said Watson spit in his face so he beat and strangled Watson.

He then covered Watson’s body with a bed sheet to make it look like he was sleeping.

Gleason kept Watson’s death a secret through two mandatory standing counts — when guards are supposed to make the rounds of the cells and have inmates actually stand up to be counted — and several meals. Officers didn’t find the body until Watson’s psychiatrist went to see him at 4:40 p.m. and found him dead, according to court documents. Officers falsely indicated on reports that they had done the counts properly.

Department of Corrections officials have refused to discuss the death, but confirmed that two officers were disciplined and two others were fired. Both were later offered their jobs back on appeal.

Watson’s sister, Barbara McLeod of Longmont, Colo., said Gleason’s change of heart didn’t surprise her. She said she hopes information will come out during the trial as to how Gleason was able to murder her brother and keep it secret for so long.

McLeod does not want Gleason to receive the death penalty.

“I still believe that he needs to spend his life — his natural life as long as he’s intended to live — he needs to spend it in solitude and isolation with minimum privileges. He doesn’t need to live in luxury at the expense of the state,” she said. “Yes, it costs more money but it is disgusting that the state of Virginia cannot stop this man from murdering.”

The judge set aside two weeks for Gleason’s trial.