XENIA — The man convicted of a railroad spike murder in Xenia will not get a new trial.
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News Center 7 has previously reported that David Lee Myers was convicted of the 1988 murder of 18-year-old Amanda Maher in Xenia.
In 2020, lawyers with the Innocence Project claimed there was never-before-tested DNA found on Maher’s body and the handle of the railroad spike used to kill her.
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Myers was granted a new trial, and a judge overturned his conviction and sentence.
The Second District Court of Appeals has issued a 123-page document that overturns Myer’s new trial ruling and makes Sarah Sparkman very happy.
“They had the right man the first time; we should never have been here,” Sparkman, Maher’s daughter, said.
Sparkman was only one year old when her mother died.
She grew up with her grandmother’s stories about her mother and what happened in 1988.
Police said Myers killed the 18-year-old mother with a railroad spike.
Xenia officers found her wallet in his car the next day.
Witnesses saw the two of them walking toward the tracks, a short time before her body was discovered.
“They worked their butt off so we would never be here,” Sparkman said.
She was shocked in 2024 when the Innocence Project asked for a new trial on behalf of Myers, claiming new DNA evidence.
She was even more shocked when a visiting judge granted that request.
Myers should soon be taken back into custody and sent back to prison on this capital murder case.
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