Phelon's long wait nears end

Case of former employee charged in slayings of four at Aiken plant opens Monday

Web posted Sunday, January 21, 2001

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 Chain of events
 Key players in the Wise trial

By Greg Rickabaugh
South Carolina Bureau

The R.E. Phelon Co. plant in Aiken was the site of a workplace rampage in which four employees were killed in 1997. The trial of former employee Arthur Hastings Wise is set to begin Monday. RON COCKERILLE/FILE

AIKEN - Arthur Hastings Wise, the ex-employee charged with killing four R.E. Phelon Co. workers in 1997, goes on trial for his life beginning Monday.

More than three years have passed since the workplace shootings shook the manufacturing plant and the more than 400 people employed there. The trial promises to dredge up bad memories for dozens of eyewitnesses and for a community trying to recover from the devastating massacre.

The long wait has been hard for Phelon workers and managers waiting for justice.

``It is frustrating that it has taken this long for a case this serious to go to trial, but our stance really is that the justice system has to work,'' said Perry Fernandez, Phelon's human resources manager. ``And for it to work, it sometimes takes time. We are just glad that it is finally moving on.''

On Monday, court officials will travel to Beaufort County to pick a jury and will bring the panel back to Aiken for trial.

Mr. Wise is charged with four counts of murder, three counts of assault with intent to kill, four counts of possession of a gun while committing a violent crime and burglary.

Of the 23 workplace killing sprees in the United States since 1986 - not including Phelon - only eight of the accused survived to stand trial. Of those eight, three were sentenced to death, one was given a life sentence, two were declared incompetent to stand trial, and the remaining two are awaiting trial, according to research by The Augusta Chronicle. Twelve of the perpetrators of those workplace shootings - more than half - committed suicide, a common ending to such crimes, according to Steve Kaufer, co-founder of Work Place Violence Research Institute in Palm Springs, Calif. The three other suspects were shot dead by police.

Second Circuit Solicitor Barbara R. Morgan is armed with more than 100 potential witnesses to build her case against Mr. Wise as a violent employee who sought revenge after he was fired from the manufacturing plant for aggressiveness toward a supervisor.

Court-appointed attorneys Gregory Harlow and Carl B. Grant are set to defend Mr. Wise. If their client is convicted, the attorneys' job will be to persuade the jury to order a life sentence and spare Mr. Wise from the death penalty.

The Wise trial is expected to be the most well-attended Aiken County court case in years, drawing dozens of Phelon workers and area residents whose lives were changed Sept. 15, 1997. Circuit Judge Thomas W. Cooper Jr. has agreed to open up an additional area to the courtroom and broadcast the testimony live on television.

Arthur Hastings Wise: Former employee of Phelon faces four charges of murder in 1997 slayings. RON COCKERILLE/FILE

Ms. Morgan said in court this month she expects Phelon workers and their families to attend the trial. The solicitor has served subpoenas for more than 100 potential witnesses.

At the Phelon plant, managers say the trial may bring back bad memories that have faded over the years.

Plant officials will bring in counselors to help workers handle the stress, according to Mr. Fernandez.

Details of the killings have already been replayed in the media during the past few weeks as court officials have prepared for trial.

Jury selection will take place in Beaufort County, two hours south of Aiken in the Lowcountry. A judge ruled that pretrial publicity made it impossible to pick an impartial jury in Aiken County, so jurors will be picked in Beaufort County, transported to Aiken and sequestered in a hotel during the trial.

Once it starts, Judge Cooper will hold the trial from about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, including Saturdays and Sundays.

The first step, jury selection, is a tricky process for attorneys, who will question jurors at length on a variety of issues as they try to find those who may be favorable to their side. Defense attorneys and prosecutors are given a limited amount of strikes - the number of jurors they can reject.

The selection process is especially complex in capital murder cases because they are the only ones in which a jury can impose a sentence after deciding guilt. Because jurors play such a vital role, and because a person's life is in the balance, attorneys are reluctant to rush the jury selection process.

Jury selection in the Wise case is expected to last a couple of days, Judge Cooper said.

The judge has blocked off two weeks of his schedule for the entire trial, something he can extend if necessary.

Once the trial starts, Ms. Morgan is expected to lay the case out as gathered by investigators.

Mr. Wise, 46, worked as a machine operator at Phelon, a company that manufactures ignitions for lawn equipment. After five years at the plant, he applied for a position in the tool and die area but was passed over.

Flowers mark Leonard Filyaw's mailbox on Pine Log Road. Mr. Filyaw was one of four employees killed at the Phelon plant in 1997. RON COCKERILLE/FILE

He was fired in 1997 after a confrontation with a supervisor during which he angrily refused a job order and shouted racial obscenities. When told to clock out, Mr. Wise referred to ``white men'' who were playing with his life, according to a document in the negligence lawsuit filed by wounded Phelon security guard Lt. Stan Vance.

In his own written version of the June 20, 1997, confrontation, Mr. Wise states that his boss interrupted his work and instructed him to help another operator on a different machine.

``I got up from my seat (and) went over to the machine, thinking I would show him how much of a problem it was going to be putting three men in a tight and uncomfortable situation and hope he would be reasonable,'' Mr. Wise wrote in the statement. ``He put his finger in my face and I `snat' (sic) and told him to remove his finger and then he told me to clock out.''

Mr. Wise was fired July 2, 1997, and fellow workers said it was well known he warned personnel officials he would be back. Mr. Wise threatened several employees and supervisory personnel when he was dismissed, according to the civil suit.

On Sept. 15, 1997, police say, the suspect returned to the Aiken plant, driving through the main gate about 3 p.m. as workers prepared for a shift change. He parked his two-door red Saturn, got out and said ``Stan, I've got things to do.'' With that, the suspect put the gun to the guard's chest and fired, Lt. Vance said.

The suspect allegedly cut the plant's phone lines and then walked through the front door to the human resources office, where he found Charles Griffeth, the company's human resources director. Mr. Griffeth was shot twice and killed.

OTHER STORIES: • Phelon's long wait nears end • Key players in the Wise trial • Selection of jurors discussed • Phelon jurors will come from Lowcountry • Change of venue gets OK • Phelon Co. killings trial delayed • Phelon suit says threat was known • Gag order imposed in Wise case • State to make bid for death • Shooting suspect indicted • Tragedy promotes positive action • Man charged after Phelon killings • Investigators still looking for `whys' in Phelon shooting • Shooting suspect held up • R.E. Phelon Shootings Map & Timeline • Co-workers ignored threats • Workers struggle with grief • Neighbors had few indications • 4 killed in Aiken County shooting; suspect caught by SWAT team

Police say the suspect later walked to the tool and die area, where he fatally shot David Moore and Leonard Filyaw, who both worked in jobs Mr. Wise wanted. Sheryl Woods was shot three times and died in a rear parking lot. She had received a quality assurance job Mr. Wise had sought, Phelon employees said.

Three others - Lt. Vance, Jerry Corley and John Mucha - were shot but survived.

Police found Mr. Wise about two hours after the shootings in an upstairs quality assurance office, where he was lying on the floor, vomiting after drinking an unknown substance. A gun was next to him.

If prosecutors are successful in convicting Mr. Wise, defense attorneys will likely try to show a human side to their client, asking the jury to empathize and sentence him to life imprisonment.

After the shootings, friends and acquaintances of Mr. Wise stepped forward to describe him.

Mr. Wise had been a member of North Augusta Church of Christ, where congregants knew him as ``Hastings.'' The pastor described the suspect as a ``huge guy, kind of a big, old teddy bear with a big genuine smile.''

Acquaintances called Mr. Wise a loner. To his closest friends, he revealed he had served 3´ years in prison for robbing a bank in Thomson in 1979. He told police then that he was living out of his car and needed money.

The note he slipped a teller one day that September was written with a pencil borrowed from a stranger and scribbled on paper he found on the street, police said. The stolen money - about $1,500 - went toward a car payment, new clothes and a dinner date with his girlfriend.

Police, acting on a tip, tracked Mr. Wise down at the Ramada Inn on U.S. Highway 1 in Aiken. He confessed, pleaded guilty and received a 12-year jail sentence, spending most of his term at Lee Correctional Institute in Leesburg, a medium-security prison. While in prison, Mr. Wise earned a technical degree, trying to prepare for life outside jail.

Mr. Wise was paroled Nov. 16, 1983, and returned to Aiken County, ending up in North Augusta, where he lived for years. By 1997, he had been working at Phelon for four years and had been living in a one-bedroom apartment.

Neighbors said Mr. Wise rarely received visits from friends or family. But that was not surprising to one neighbor, Tommie Amaker, who said Mr. Wise told him that his family never let him live down the prison time.

Chain of events

Sept. 15, 1997: A gunman walks into R.E. Phelon Co. in Aiken at the 3 p.m. shift change and begins shooting. Sheryl Wood, David Moore, Leonard Filyaw and Charles Griffeth are killed; Jerry Corley, John Mucha and Stan Vance are wounded. Two hours later, police find Arthur Hastings Wise in an upstairs quality assurance office, lying on the floor and vomiting after ingesting an unknown substance. The former Phelon machine operator, who was fired two months earlier, is rushed to Aiken Regional Medical Centers in critical condition.

Sept. 16, 1997: Phelon President Russell D. Phelon announces a plan for counseling sessions for workers. ``We've got a lot of healing to do,'' he says.

Autopsies are performed in Newberry, S.C.

Mr. Wise's condition is upgraded from critical to serious; he is charged with one count of murder with other charges pending. He remains under constant armed guard at the hospital.

Sept. 17, 1997: Phelon workers attend three-hour counseling sessions at First Baptist Church and St. Paul's Lutheran Church. Mr. Wise's condition is upgraded to fair.

Sept. 18, 1997: Mr. Wise is moved to a state prison facility in Bishopville. He is formally served with 15 warrants, including four for murder. Bond is denied.

Funeral services are held for Mr. Filyaw and Ms. Wood.

Phelon employees are asked to return to work voluntarily.

Sept. 19, 1997: Services are held for Mr. Griffeth.

Sept. 20, 1997: Services are held for Mr. Moore.

Sept. 22, 1997: About 300 people attend a public memorial service at First Baptist Church in Aiken, where a poem by Phelon employee Daryl Chamber is read: ``He came to steal their lives. But when he couldn't steal their souls, he stole part of every heart. ... From this hope will grow.''

R.E. Phelon Co. initiates a memorial fund for victims' families with a $50,000 donation.

Jan. 20, 1998: Mr. Vance, the security guard who was shot first, files suit against R.E. Phelon plant for negligence. He claims the plant failed to warn him that Mr. Wise's personnel file showed he was capable of violence.

Aug. 27, 1998: A grand jury indicts Mr. Wise in the slayings on four counts of murder, four counts of possession of a firearm while committing a violent crime, three counts of assault and battery with intent to kill, and second-degree burglary.

Sept. 11, 1998: Second Circuit Solicitor Barbara R. Morgan files an intent to seek the death penalty against Mr. Wise.

July 22, 1999: Mr. Phelon publicly complains about the delay in Mr. Wise's trial in a letter to The Augusta Chronicle. ``Justice delayed is not justice at all,'' he writes.

Dec. 2, 1999: Circuit Judge Rodney Peeples imposes a gag order, sealing the records and preventing attorneys and victims from talking about the slayings.

July 13, 2000: Circuit Judge Thomas W. Cooper Jr. agrees to delay the trial because a defense attorney, Martin Puetz, is removed from the case after his arrest on a charge of criminal domestic violence. Attorney Carl B. Grant of Columbia is named as the replacement, joining Gregory Harlow on the defense team.

Oct. 20, 2000: Judge Cooper agrees to a change of venue, saying pretrial publicity would make it impossible to seat an impartial jury in Aiken County. The judge sets the trial date for Jan. 22, 2001.

Nov. 22, 2000: Judge Cooper decides to select jurors from Beaufort County.

Jan. 12, 2001: Judge Cooper agrees to accommodate large crowds by broadcasting testimony in a nearby room.

Monday: Jury selection begins in Beaufort County.

Reach Greg Rickabaugh at (803) 648-1395.

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