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David Runyon, an army veteran, was convicted in the April 2007 shooting murder case of Navy officer Cory Voss in Newport News, Virginia, along with two other individuals, including the victim's wife Catherina, and her lover Michael Draven.
Voss was reportedly found shot to death inside his truck near an ATM. Runyon, the hitman in the murder-for-hire case, shot him five times on the night of April 27.
Runyon was sentenced to death by a Norfolk federal jury in 2009 for the murder, which was staged to look like a robbery.
He remained on death row until December 2020, when his case was remanded for a hearing to determine whether one of the defense attorneys was "ineffective" in failing to thoroughly analyze his brain damage during the trial.
Runyon's current attorneys argue that if the jury was unaware of his brain damage, given his history of child abuse and being hit in the head by a drunk driver while serving in the Army. The Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December 2021 that the accused was entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the "ineffective assistance of counsel" claim.
This article will further discuss David Runyon's involvement in Cory Voss' murder case and recent updates on his conviction.
Everything about hired hitman David Runyon's role in Cory Voss' murder-for-hire case and recent updates in his decade-old conviction
On April 29, 2007, a 30-year-old Navy officer and father of two named Cory Allen Voss was shot and murdered in Newport News, near an ATM. The communications officer, who was working aboard the frigate Elrod, had returned from a deployment when he was murdered. It was revealed that his wife, Catherina, sent him to the ATM under false pretenses where a hired hitman was waiting to gun him down.
The wife claimed that she and her boyfriend, Michael Draven, planned to murder the victim to continue their relationship and collect insurance money. The hired hitman, David Runyon, was promised $20,000 but never received it. Runyon, a former cop and Army veteran, and Draven were both participating in a government-funded medical experiment at a Baltimore clinic.
In the murder-for-hire of the young officer, David Runyon was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was on death row in Indiana for over a decade until 2020 when his current counsel secured him a second hearing to determine if his trial lawyers should have more thoroughly investigated his brain damage at the time of the crime.
Runyon's attorneys argued that if the jury had been aware of his brain damage, possibly caused by child abuse and exacerbated by being hit head-on by a drunk driver while serving in the Army, their decision would have been different.
On December 23, 2021, a three-person federal appeals court panel ruled 2-1 to remand the case to the federal court in Norfolk for a hearing to determine whether one of Runyon's trial attorneys from 2009 gave "ineffective assistance of counsel" by not going into greater detail about the brain damage issue.
Additionally, they argued that David Runyon's behavioral changes and career issues were compatible with brain damage. Runyon may be released from death row and get several life terms as the outcome of a fresh sentencing hearing.
Learn more about the case on Oxygen's Snapped.
