Dead Duck-e

Hollis Ball and Sam Westcott Series, Vol. 2

by Helen Chappell

Hollis Ball is back, this time covering the Decoy Jamboree, still smouldering over the light sentence Judge Fish gave a wife-murderer. Then someone bashes Fish on the head with an antique decoy. Hollis is pretty sure it's not suspect #1, so naturally she decides to solve the murder herself, with the help of her dead ex-husband, of course, the charming ghostly Sam.

ISBN 1-59431-355-2 Mystery / Paranormal / Suspense

Cover Art by Maggie Dix.

Also available in HTML and RTF format.



Chapter 1

Devaneau County Judge Gives Convicted Wife Murderer 6 Months

"Sorry I Have to Give You Any Jail Time At All," Judge Findley S. Fish Tells Harmon Sneed

By Hollis Ball Staff Writer

BETHEL--Onlookers gasped and a relative of the victim screamed when a Devanau County Circuit Court judge sentenced convicted wife murderer Harmon F. Sneed to six months in jail. "I understand how things can get out of hand," Findlay S. Fish said from the bench as he pronounced sentence, "So I'm going to go light on you. Your wife provoked you with those divorce papers and you just lost it. It's just one of those mistakes a guy can make. I'm sorry that I have to give you any jail time at all," Fish added.

The judge then ordered Sneed to serve six months in the Devanau County Detention Center in a work release program. Under work release, the convicted killer could continue to work at his job at the Chinaberry Poultry Plant. As the judge pronounced sentence, an audible gasp could be heard in the courtroom.

Mrs. Sneed's mother, Wanda Repton Wells, began to scream and Assistant State's Attorney Melissa Hovarth, who had prosecuted the case, rose to her feet. Devanau County Victim Witness Program coordinator Patricia Rodrick and Barbara Hooper of A Safe Place Women's Shelter both exclaimed out loud, as did several others present. Even Devanau County Public Defender Wallston Pitt expressed astonishment at the light sentence.

The convicted murderer was seen to smile at the victim's mother as he heard his sentence pronounced.

Sneed, 32, was convicted last April of the murder of his wife Lucinda Wells Sneed, 28. The couple had been separated for more than a year, according to trial testimony, when Sneed, who has admitted to drug and alcohol problems, broke into the house she shared with her mother and shot Mrs. Sneed in the back three times as she tried to run from him. Sneed then fled the scene in Mrs. Sneed's truck, taking with him a Bethel area female juvenile, then 16. State police later identified the murder weapon as a .44 magnum belonging to the girl's father. The couple was apprehended in an Ocean City motel two days later, and the girl was returned to her parents. Because of her age, her name is being withheld.

It was not Sneed's first brush with the law. Records show that Bethel police had answered seventeen domestic incident calls at the Sneed residence in Patamoke over the past six years. According to trial testimony, Mrs. Sneed sought help from the women's shelter after Sneed had broken her arm, her nose and ruptured a kidney. On the day before Sneed shot her, Mrs. Sneed had initiated divorce proceedings and asked for a restraining order against Sneed….

--Watertown Gazette, July 9th, 1994.

_________________________

On the Associated Press a.m. wire, July 10th, 1994.

Demonstrators Protest Judge's "Slap On The Wrist" Sentence For Wife Murderer, Sneed

By Hollis Ball Staff Writer

BETHEL--Attention was centered outside Devanau County Courthouse yesterday, as anti-domestic violence groups protested, television cameras panned, police sought to maintain order and reporters clamored for a statement, Devanau County Circuit Court Judge Findlay S. Fish refused to defend his six month sentence for convicted wife murderer Harmon Sneed. "I don't owe anyone any explanations," Fish called over the jeers of demonstrators, before being hustled away in a yellow Mercedes Benz …

--Watertown Gazette, July 25, 1994

_____________________

In Maryland, Men Can Get Away With Murder, Say Anti-Domestic Violence Groups

--Washington Post headline, July 26th, 1994

_____________________

Eastern Shore Judge's Sentence Raises Same Questions Mencken Pondered

--editorial headline, Baltimore Sun, July 26th, 1994

___________________

Shore Judges Hold Kangaroo Court?

By Hollis Ball Staff Writer

WATERTOWN--One by one, they emerged from the private dining room at the Chesapeake Bay Country Club. It was enough to make one knowledgeable bystander wisecrack, "Hey Judges! Who's minding the store?"

Acting on a tip from a highly placed source, a Gazette reporter watched as Circuit Court judges from all nine Eastern Shore counties emerged from a closed meeting room. Among those spotted was controversial Judge Findlay S. Fish, whose recent 6 month sentencing of convicted wife murderer Harmon Sneed has drawn nationwide criticism, including calls for his resignation and a judicial review of his record while on the bench. Although none of the judges looked happy, Fish's expression was particularly grim…

"No comment" were the word of the day as the judges fled the reporter, speeding toward their cars, but a source has told the Gazette that the Shore judges had convened a secret ad hocmeeting in order to pressure Fish into stepping down from the bench…

--Watertown Gazette, August 14, 1994

__________________

State Judicial Review Commission Refuses To Censure Fish: Three Women, Two Minority Judges Openly Voice Dissent

The Good Old Boy Network is Alive and Well," says Judge Mary Bruce Hopkins

--headline, Watertown Gazette, November 3, 1995