Workers describe slayings

Phelon employees take the stand in trial's second day of testimony, recalling encounters with defendant

Web posted Monday, January 29, 2001

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By Greg Rickabaugh
South Carolina Bureau

John Goad, an employee of Aiken's R.E. Phelon Co., describes finding the body of his brother during a 1997 shooting. Arthur Hastings Wise faces murder charges, and testimony in his case continued Sunday. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF

AIKEN - After a frantic search inside R.E. Phelon Co. in 1997, worker John Goad discovered his brother behind a work station and figured he was hiding from the gunman.

Then he rolled his brother over.

``I could see the blood on his chest. His eyes were still open. He was starting to turn purple,'' Mr. Goad told the jury Sunday as tears streamed down his face. ``When I realized he was gone, I just started calling his name. I said, `No, David, no!'''

David Moore, his brother and co-worker, was gone. But the war-like atmosphere around Mr. Goad continued.

``I could hear the shots, and I could hear people screaming,'' he said. ``I knew I had to go. I knew I couldn't carry him out. So I ran out the way I came.''

The gut-wrenching testimony left few dry eyes in an Aiken County courtroom, where jurors passed around tissues and the victim's family sobbed loudly.

Mr. Goad was one of a dozen witnesses Sunday as testimony continued in the capital murder trial of Arthur Hastings Wise, the Phelon ex-employee charged in the workplace massacre that killed four and injured three.

One by one, Phelon workers recalled in vivid detail their own encounters with a gunman on Sept. 15, 1997, the day they say a fired employee walked methodically through the plant with a semi-automatic handgun, shooting round after round and pausing only to reload.

At a glance Eyewitnesses recount events of the shootings inside the plant. Prosecution expects to rest its case today. Defense attorneys suggest defendant was discriminated against and treated in an unfriendly manner by co-workers.

Bullets flew from the end of the gun, hitting desks, walls and people.

``Mr. Wise shot randomly throughout the shop,'' said Danny Golson, a Phelon tool and die supervisor. ``He didn't care who he was shooting at.''

Workers dove for the floor and crawled on their bellies after realizing the popping sounds were not coming from office machinery.

``I ducked down behind the table,'' said David Langille, a Phelon tool and die worker. ``I didn't know I could move that fast.''

Several ran for the exit; others shouted warnings to co-workers.

Pearl Ingle feared the worst.

``In my mind, I said, `Today, I guess I will die,''' said Ms. Ingle, a packer who says she ran into the gunman during the rampage.

He left her alone.

Quality assurance worker Diane Wells saw the gunman and headed for the nearest exit. Then she heard something.

``God, please don't leave me!'' a voice cried out.

``I didn't know what to do, whether to go to that person,'' Ms. Wells said.

A male co-worker was screaming for everyone to leave.

``I panicked because I was trying to get out,'' Ms. Wells said. ``I ran. I didn't look back.''

Work radios crackled with dozens of voices, all trying to talk at the same time. Chaos was the order of the day.

WORKERS TESTIFIED that Mr. Wise had been fired from the Phelon plant weeks before the killings. They say he returned with a mission to kill those who wronged him and hurt others who worked in departments where he wanted a job.

After the gunman walked out of the tool and die area toward the quality assurance division, employee David Langille said, Mr. Langille checked on co-worker Leonard Filyaw, who had been hit once with gunfire.

``His eyes, there was a blank stare. I knew he was dead,'' Mr. Langille said.

David Moore had the same lifeless stare, he said.

But John Mucha was alive, begging and pleading for help for his gunshot wound. His co-workers came to his aid and carried him outside.

In the quality assurance office, Sheryl Wood lay wounded after her encounter with the gunman. She lay there, pleading with others not to leave her.

Minutes later, die cast worker Bruce Mundy appeared. He had been outside but decided to return and help the wounded.

Danny Golson, a Phelon tool and die supervisor, illustrates how he watched the defendant enter the plant and begin firing a weapon. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF

He soon discovered Ms. Wood.

``I yelled into the radio that I had found somebody and they were hurt,'' Mr. Mundy told the jury, fighting back tears. ``I couldn't move her. She squeezed my hand, but as far as talking - no, she couldn't talk. ... She was gurgling, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she died.''

Still, Mr. Mundy and others lifted Ms. Wood onto a stretcher and carried her outside, just in time to meet arriving police and rescue personnel.

Aiken Public Safety Officer Bob Besley testified that he arrived at the plant and eventually found the body of human resources manager Charles Griffeth in the front office, a telephone still in his hand. The manager's eyes were fixed and dilated, and he had no pulse, Officer Besley said.

A SWAT TEAM FOUND Mr. Wise in an upstairs office, according to Lt. Douglas Hixon, an agent with the State Law Enforcement Division. The defendant was laying down, and vomit was coming from his mouth. A gun lay next to him, Lt. Hixon said.

Officer Besley said Mr. Wise didn't answer simple questions posed to him, such as ``Are you OK?'' and ``Can you hear me?'' But he was alive and breathing.

Earlier witnesses said Mr. Wise had ingested liquid bug killer he brought with him in a spice bottle.

During the trial, defense attorneys Gregory Harlow and Carl B. Grant used their cross-examination of witnesses to suggest Mr. Wise was discriminated against for job promotions and was treated by workers in an unfriendly manner.

On Sunday, Mr. Wise showed little reaction to the testimony. Throughout the trial, the defendant has carried The Daily Walk Bible, which he reads and takes notes from at the defense table. He communicates with his lawyers and occasionally passes notes back and forth with them.

Circuit Judge Thomas W. Cooper Jr. told jurors Sunday that he expects the prosecution to conclude its case today. That means jurors could be asked then to decide the guilt or innocence of Mr. Wise if the defense presents no witnesses.

Reach Greg Rickabaugh at (803) 648-1395.

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