Victoria Lea Melcher Stambaugh, a 41-year-old White woman from Charles Town, West Virginia, was killed on November 7, 2014, after a period of escalating conflict with her husband, Harold D. Stambaugh Jr. In the days before the shooting, the couple had been arguing, and Victoria had left their marital home about four days earlier to stay with her mother, Theresa Melcher, whose residence was just around the corner.
Victoria worked as a pharmaceutical technician for Jefferson Pharmacy and was a member of St. Paul’s Christian Community Church in Purcellville, Virginia.
On the evening of November 7, the situation grew increasingly ominous. According to evidence later presented in court, Stambaugh had been drinking heavily. His daughter testified that she came home and found him highly intoxicated. At approximately 9:35 p.m., she saw him gathering Victoria’s belongings, placing them into trash bags and loading the bags into his truck. Victoria, meanwhile, was at her mother’s house. Before the killing, she sent a message to Stambaugh’s sister saying that her husband had come to her mother’s home intoxicated and was “talking crazy.” Victoria indicated that she did not want to speak with him while he was in that condition and feared that he might return later that night.
Authorities later reconstructed a sequence in which Stambaugh went to the Melcher residence to speak with Victoria, returned to his own home and disposed of her belongings into bags, and then went back to the house where she was staying. Inside the residence, Victoria was repeatedly shot. The medical examiner determined that she sustained seven gunshot wounds caused by five bullets, with two bullets passing through and reentering her body. Her wounds included injuries to her legs, wrist and head. She died in the living room of her mother’s home.
After the shooting, Stambaugh returned to his residence and shot himself in the face. Jefferson County 911 received two reports of gunfire, including a call from his daughter, who reported that her father had been shot in the face and mouth. When officers arrived, they found Stambaugh wounded. His daughter told police that he had indicated he had shot himself, and she immediately expressed concern for Victoria because she knew Victoria was staying nearby with her mother.
Police followed a trail of blood leading from Stambaugh’s residence toward the Melcher home. When they entered the residence, officers discovered Victoria’s body in the living room. Investigators recovered a. 40-caliber handgun that was subsequently identified as the weapon used to kill her. Stambaugh survived his self-inflicted wound and was transported to INOVA Fairfax Hospital for treatment.
On November 18, 2014, while the investigation continued, Stambaugh gave a statement to police. He acknowledged that he and Victoria had been arguing for several days and confirmed that she had moved to her mother’s house shortly before the killing. He said he remembered going there to talk with her but claimed that he blacked out during the period in which she was killed. He told investigators that he later remembered waking in a pool of blood and then shooting himself. Although he maintained that he could not remember actually killing Victoria, he did not deny responsibility and indicated to investigators that the circumstances clearly pointed to him.
Investigators also discovered what prosecutors characterized as a suicide note among Stambaugh’s belongings. The note contained a message asking that Theresa, Victoria’s mother, be told that she had meant more to him than she knew. This evidence, together with Stambaugh’s movements before and after the shooting, his handling of Victoria’s belongings, the recovered murder weapon and his statements to investigators, became important parts of the prosecution’s case.
Stambaugh was eventually indicted in Jefferson County on charges of first-degree murder, burglary and brandishing a firearm. At his trial, the defense focused heavily on his alcoholism and mental condition. Witnesses described his chronic excessive drinking, and experts called by the defense testified that long-term alcohol abuse had caused memory impairment and problems with executive functioning. Stambaugh testified that he could not remember the details of the killing. His attorneys argued that his mental condition and intoxication undermined the prosecution’s contention that he had been capable of the premeditation and deliberation necessary for first-degree murder.
The prosecution countered that his conduct showed a purposeful sequence of actions. A State expert testified that Stambaugh was capable of purposeful, sequential and directed behavior that night. Prosecutors emphasized that he was angry because Victoria had moved out and had refused to speak with him for several days. They argued that he went to her mother’s residence, returned home, packed her clothing into trash bags, and then returned to the residence before shooting her multiple times. Those actions, the State maintained, demonstrated deliberation despite his drinking and his later claims of memory loss.
On December 18, 2015, a Jefferson County jury found Harold D. Stambaugh Jr. guilty of first-degree murder and brandishing a firearm. The jury acquitted him of the burglary charge. After finding him guilty of murder, the jury recommended mercy, making him eligible for parole rather than requiring that he spend the remainder of his life in prison without the possibility of release. The Circuit Court of Jefferson County sentenced him to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole for Victoria’s murder and an additional one-year term for brandishing.
Stambaugh appealed his convictions to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, arguing in part that the evidence was insufficient to establish that he had the mental capacity to premeditate and deliberately murder Victoria. He contended that his intoxication, alcoholism and resulting cognitive impairment prevented the State from proving the mental element required for first-degree murder. The appellate court rejected that argument. In its November 18, 2016 decision, the court concluded that the evidence, viewed in the prosecution’s favor as required on appeal, was sufficient for a jury to determine that Stambaugh deliberately killed his wife.
The court specifically pointed to the sequence of events surrounding the shooting: Victoria had left the marital residence, Stambaugh was angry over the separation and her refusal to speak with him, he went to the home where she was staying, returned to his residence and packed her belongings into trash bags, and then went back to the Melcher residence and shot her repeatedly. Afterward, he returned home and shot himself. The Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed both his first-degree murder and brandishing convictions, leaving his life sentence with the possibility of parole in place.
