Killer gets life after guilty plea

Gordon murders




Tony O'Neal Grubbs

Tony O’Neal Grubbs

A career criminal who torturously murdered an elderly Waynesboro couple won’t pay with his life but will spend the rest of it behind bars.

Tony O’Neal Grubbs, 42, pleaded guilty last Friday to all charges against him stemming from the June 2010 stabbing deaths of Ralph and Trudie Gordon, 82 and 83, respectively. His plea spared him the death penalty, which could have been invoked by a jury had they found him guilty of the double murder.

Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Craig sentenced Grubbs to two life sentences without parole plus 40 years for the offenses, including two counts of felony murder, two counts of malice murder, burglary, possession of a knife during the commission of a crime and theft by taking a motor vehicle.

Grubbs’ trial was set to begin with jury selection next Monday, to be followed by weeks of testimony detailing the horrific home invasion in which the Gordons were stabbed between 15-30 times each, their home ransacked and car stolen. Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ashley Wright filed notice in 2010 she would seek the death penalty.

Trudie and Ralph Gordon

Trudie and Ralph Gordon

However, Grubbs sent word several weeks ago through his court-appointed attorneys, Christian Lamar and Gladys Pollard, that he was willing to plead guilty.

Wright said she discussed the option with the Gordons’ family members, who supported the possible plea agreement though the death penalty would be waived.

“Everyone pretty much has mixed emotions,” Wright said. “But I can’t imagine the relief that the one who killed their loved ones has admitted it and is now being punished for it.”

At last Friday’s sentencing hearing, more than two dozen friends and family members, many of them in tears and holding hands, looked on as Grubbs entered his plea. It was streamed over the Internet to other family members watching from Tacoma, Wash. Before Judge Craig passed down the sentence, a few of them spoke about their loss and thanked the DA’s office for their work on the case.

“I have never seen such loving, Christian people. I am the person I am today because of my grandparents,” Stephanie Huff told Judge Craig, adding that no outcome could change “this hideous, hateful crime.”

She said Mr. Gordon’s daughter, who found her father and Mrs. Gordon’s slain bodies in their home after they failed to show up for church on Father’s Day, would never be the same.

Samantha Terry McNeal said the same of her mother, who was best friends with Mrs. Gordon for more than 50 years and had since moved from Waynesboro because it was too painful to stay.

“(The Gordons) would have helped anybody in the world. It just doesn’t make sense,” she said.

The Rev. Willie Tomlin, pastor of Thomas Grove Baptist Church where Mr. Gordon had served as a deacon and Sunday school superintendent and Mrs. Gordon as church treasurer, said the plea brought “a good end, if there is such a thing,” and closure to the family.

The evidence against Grubbs had been stacked high. He was arrested two days after the Gordons’ bodies were discovered, when deputies found him walking along Highway 80 outside Waynesboro. He was connected to the murders when he pawned several pieces of Mrs. Gordon’s jewelry, including a ring her friends say she never took off. He sold her rings for $20 the day after the murders.

A 10-time convicted felon, Grubbs had been out of prison just six months when he committed the murders. He had been homeless after serving time for a violent 2005 robbery in which he threatened an Augusta woman at knife point and stole her car.

A LEGACY LEFT BEHIND

The Gordons were pillars in the community and their church.

Mr. Gordon was a retired Army Master Sergeant and three-war veteran who stayed in tip-top shape, drove the church bus and went bowling every Wednesday. Mrs. Gordon was a retired teacher who volunteered at the hospital, was extremely active in the Sapphirettes Club and kept in contact with many of the students she taught during her 30-year career. She gave her time to a number of organizations including the Burke County Hospital Pink Ladies, the Shepeard Community Blood Mobile and the Heart Fund.

Family members say they were both widowed and found each other late in life when Mr. Gordon moved to Waynesboro to take care of his ill mother. They were married for nine years.

When the Gordons’ bodies were transported to the morgue from their home the day they were discovered, a procession followed the ambulance through the community as a show of respect. In the days that followed, a candlelight vigil was held at Thomas Grove and community members began pledging money toward a reward to capture their killer.

Law enforcement officials said Grubbs had to be moved to Jefferson County jail after his arrest for his protection from the other inmates, many of whom had been students of Mrs. Gordon when they were younger.


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