Ernest Wayne Cline, a 26-year-old White man identified in obituary records as being from Oceana, West Virginia, was killed on August 6, 2014, during a confrontation at the Wyoming County home of Margaret Broyles. What began as a routine trip involving Cline, his brother Jesse Graybeal, and a woman named Charity Lester ended in gunfire. Court records later provided a detailed account of the shooting and identified James Marshall Green as the man responsible.
That day, Lester drove Cline and Graybeal to Broyles’s residence. Graybeal wanted to speak with Broyles about cutting her lawn and also needed to obtain fresh water for his dogs because he did not have running water at his own home. Broyles had previously allowed Graybeal to use an outside spigot for this purpose, and according to testimony later presented in court, he had gotten water there many times before.
Cline remained in Lester’s vehicle while his brother went to the house.
While Graybeal was getting the water, James Marshall Green came outside. Green was at the residence assisting Broyles with her bills. Graybeal told Green that Broyles had given him permission to use the water. After filling up the water, Graybeal moved toward the house because he wanted to speak with Broyles about the lawn work. The encounter suddenly became confrontational when Green pulled a firearm from his pocket, cocked it, and pointed it directly at Graybeal’s chest.
Graybeal reacted by raising his hands and questioning why Green was confronting him. He then grabbed Green’s arm and tried to wrestle the firearm away from him. During that struggle, Green shot Graybeal. Seeing what was happening to his brother, Cline got out of Lester’s vehicle and ran toward the men. According to the evidence later recounted by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Cline was coming toward the confrontation in an effort to help his brother when Green turned the gun on him.
Green shot Cline four times. The bullet wounds proved fatal. Graybeal, although wounded in the same confrontation, survived. The case consequently developed into both a homicide investigation over Cline’s death and an investigation into the shooting of Graybeal.
The criminal case proceeded against James Marshall Green. On October 7, 2014, a Wyoming County grand jury indicted Green on one count of first-degree murder in Cline’s killing and one count of attempted murder for shooting Graybeal. Green did not ultimately concede that the shootings amounted to murder. His defense maintained that the circumstances supported self-defense and argued that the prosecution had not established the malice necessary for a murder conviction.
Green went to trial in Wyoming County in June 2016. Graybeal was an important prosecution witness and testified about the events leading up to the gunfire. His account was that he had not threatened Green and had merely explained that he had permission to obtain water from the property. The prosecution maintained that Green produced the gun without legal justification, pointed it at Graybeal, shot him, and then shot Cline as Cline approached to help his injured brother.
The defense sought to portray the confrontation differently, arguing that Green had been confronted by the two brothers and that his actions should be viewed as self-defense rather than a malicious killing. Green also challenged whether the state had proven that he possessed the necessary criminal intent. The jury, however, did not fully accept the defense theory. On June 23, 2016, jurors rejected the original first-degree murder charge but found Green guilty of the lesser offense of second-degree murder in Cline’s death. In a different result regarding Graybeal, the jury acquitted Green of attempted murder.
The distinction was significant. Although the jury did not find the elements necessary to convict Green of first-degree murder, it concluded that the shooting of Cline constituted murder rather than manslaughter or a justified act of self-defense. The finding meant that jurors determined Green acted with malice when he intentionally used the firearm against Cline.
On November 7, 2016, the Wyoming County Circuit Court sentenced Green to ten years in prison for the second-degree murder conviction. A resentencing order was later entered on June 12, 2017, for purposes of allowing Green to pursue an appeal.
Green challenged his conviction before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. Among his arguments, he contended that the trial court should have granted his motions for acquittal because, in his view, the evidence did not prove malice and instead supported self-defense or, at most, voluntary manslaughter. He also challenged West Virginia’s murder statute as unconstitutionally vague and raised complaints concerning events and arguments during his trial.
The state’s highest court rejected those challenges. In reviewing the evidence, the court emphasized that Graybeal testified that he never threatened Green and that Green drew the firearm and pointed it at him before the physical struggle for the weapon began. The court also noted that Cline approached only after his brother had been shot. Green then fired four times at Cline. Those circumstances, particularly the intentional use of a deadly weapon, were found sufficient for a jury to conclude that Green acted with malice rather than lawful self-defense.
The appellate court further observed that Green had not identified evidence in the record demonstrating that Cline’s shooting was accidental or legally justified. It deferred to the jury’s responsibility to determine witness credibility and decide whether Green’s self-defense claim was believable. The court concluded that a rational jury could find the elements of second-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
Green’s remaining appellate arguments were also unsuccessful. The court rejected his constitutional challenge to the murder statute and found no basis to overturn the conviction based on his other allegations concerning the trial. On October 19, 2018, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed the Wyoming County Circuit Court’s judgment, leaving Green’s second-degree murder conviction and ten-year prison sentence in place.
Cline’s death therefore resulted in a completed prosecution rather than an unresolved homicide investigation. James Marshall Green was identified as the shooter, indicted for first-degree murder, tried before a jury, convicted of second-degree murder, and sentenced to incarceration. Although Green continued to maintain that the circumstances did not support a murder conviction, the jury rejected his justification for the fatal shooting, and West Virginia’s highest court later upheld that decision.
