Lynette Denise Farley was a 41-year-old White/Caucasian woman whose death on September 25, 2014, became the focus of a murder investigation after her husband, Johnnie Ray Farley, initially tried to portray her disappearance as a missing-person case. According to the subsequent court record, Johnnie drove his wife to isolated rural property he owned in Mercer County, an area described as his farm near the Mercer-Raleigh county line.
He had taken a shovel, a mattock and a concealed shotgun with him. Shortly after they arrived, he retrieved the shotgun and intentionally shot Lynette in the chest. The medical examiner later confirmed that the gunshot wound to her chest caused her death.
After the shooting, Johnnie went to considerable lengths to conceal what had happened. He removed Lynette's clothing, dragged her body down a hillside and dug a shallow grave using the tools he had brought with him. He buried her there, shoveled dirt containing her blood into the woods and discarded the spent shotgun shell in nearby bushes. After returning to Raleigh County, he stored the digging tools at his residence and hid the shotgun in a neighbor's burned-out building. He threw Lynette's purse and bloodstained clothing in the trash. He also used her cellular telephone to send messages that appeared to have been written by her, including messages to himself and to her daughter, in an effort to make it appear she was still alive. He later threw the telephone into a lake.
Four days after the killing, on September 29, Johnnie went to the Beckley Detachment of the West Virginia State Police and reported his wife missing. During recorded statements on September 30 and October 2, he denied knowing where she was and denied hurting her. He told investigators that Lynette had left him on previous occasions and acknowledged that she had at one point lived for about a month with another man, Alexander Penn. Johnnie claimed that on September 25 he had taken Lynette through a McDonald's drive-through in Beckley, returned her to their home and then traveled to his farm alone.
Investigators soon found evidence that contradicted that account. Surveillance footage associated with the McDonald's trip showed Johnnie's truck traveling away from the couple's home and in the direction of the farm. Records from Lynette's cellular telephone showed that the phone connected with a tower in the area of the farm that day. Investigators also discovered credit-card records and additional surveillance footage indicating that Johnnie used Lynette's credit card to buy gasoline while returning from the farm. These pieces of evidence increasingly undermined his claim that she had simply disappeared after he left her at home.
On October 3, investigators brought Johnnie back for another recorded interview. He continued denying involvement for several minutes, but after troopers confronted him with inconsistencies in his story, he confessed. He admitted that he had killed Lynette intentionally and said that he had meant to do it. He described the shooting and burial, told investigators where the shotgun and digging tools could be found and repeatedly offered to take officers to the grave. He said the killing was connected to Lynette's relationship with another man, and while accompanying police to the property he acknowledged that he had been thinking about killing her for some time.
Johnnie then led West Virginia State Police officers to the rural property and showed them where Lynette had been shot and where he had buried her. Once officers confirmed the presence of the grave, they placed him under arrest. Her body was recovered from the shallow burial site on his property in the Egeria area near the Mercer-Raleigh county line. The evidence against Johnnie now included not only his detailed confession but the recovered body, the suspected murder weapon, the digging tools, surveillance evidence, telephone-location information and financial records documenting his movements.
The investigation also revealed a troubling history in the months before the homicide. Lynette worked at a Go-Mart convenience store, where the manager testified that Johnnie sometimes remained at the store throughout an entire eight-hour shift watching her and would send her text messages even when she was only a short distance away. The manager said Johnnie once asked whether Lynette was seeing another man and threatened that if he caught her with someone else at the store, he would shoot Lynette, the man and anyone who got in his way. His behavior eventually resulted in him being banned from the store after he used his truck to ram Lynette's vehicle in the parking lot.
Johnnie also admitted during the investigation that several months before the murder he had slashed the tires on Lynette's vehicle to prevent her from leaving. Alexander Penn testified that Johnnie had called and threatened to kill Penn, Lynette and then himself. Penn also said Johnnie repeatedly drove past his residence when Lynette was staying there. Prosecutors used this evidence to place the killing in the context of Johnnie's jealousy and increasingly threatening behavior toward his wife.
On February 15, 2015, a Mercer County grand jury indicted Johnnie Ray Farley for first-degree murder. Before trial, his attorneys attempted to suppress his October 3 confession, arguing that police continued questioning after he referenced wanting an attorney. The trial court rejected that argument after reviewing the circumstances of the interview and determined that the confession had been voluntarily given. The jury trial was held on August 25 and 26, 2015. Jurors heard the recorded confession, testimony regarding the police investigation, the medical examiner's findings and evidence of Johnnie's previous threats and conduct toward Lynette.
The defense emphasized that Johnnie eventually cooperated with investigators and led them to Lynette's body. His attorneys also argued that the marital relationship had deteriorated because of Lynette's relationship with Penn and presented testimony concerning Johnnie's emotional difficulties and family problems. The jury nevertheless found him guilty of first-degree murder and declined to recommend mercy, a decision that meant he would not become eligible for parole. After his request for a new trial was denied, the Mercer County Circuit Court sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Johnnie appealed his conviction, challenging the admission of his confession and several evidentiary and trial rulings. On March 7, 2017, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia rejected his arguments and affirmed the first-degree murder conviction. The court concluded that there was no reversible error in the handling of his confession or the other challenged evidence, leaving his sentence of life imprisonment without parole in place.
