Person Page 3,913

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - Greensboro Record; Greensboro, North Carolina; Saturday, February 10, 1951; Page 14 (GenealogyBank.com):

Man Denies Knowing Car Was Being Used For Carrying Liquor

It's all being a mistake about his car being seized by the government on the grounds that is was used in liquor dealings, Ray Smith of Winston-Salem said in papers filed in Middle District Court here today.

Smith says that on the day the car was seized he had merely sent his brother Odell "to the store for some salt to salt a hog down," and the next thing he knew the government had grabbed the car.

Odell, he said, never had any reputation or messing with liquor, and how was he, Ray, to suspect that any wrongdoings from being carried out with the car, if they were.

Ray Smith wants his car back, but the government wants it forfeited on a charge that it was used by James Odell Smith, Walter Hilton, and Bobby Louis DeVault in removing and concealing nontaxpaid liquor.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Florida; Sunday, August 12, 1979; Main Edition, Page 20 (Newspapers.com)

Body of Orlando woman found

The body of a 19-year-old woman was found Saturday morning outside an abandoned car in Union Park, Orange County deputy sheriffs reported.

Homicide investigators said that Valerie Renee Devault, Route 8, Box 417, died of multiple stab wounds.

Her fully clothed body was found about 9:45 a.m. on a short, dirt side street running south from Eastwood Drive, about 1 mile west of Rouse Road in Union Park.

Nearby was a late-model, maroon Ford LTD. The car was not registered to a woman, deputies said, and they refused to release the name of the car's owner.

A sheriff's spokesman said deputies were looking for the owner but did not yet consider him a suspect.

Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Stanton Kesser said the woman was wearing "some kind of overalls," which had been torn in several places. He added, "There is reason to suspect sexual assault." However he said it could not be positively determined if the woman had been raped until an autopsy is performed.

Sheriff's spokesman Richard King said Saturday there was no apparent motive for the killing.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Florida; Saturday, September 15, 1979; Main Edition, Page 78 (Newspapers.com)

3 juveniles among 13 indicted by Orange County grand jury By MARY R. HEFFRON Sentinel Star

Named in the indictments were:

. . .

Joseph Alan Marter, 21, 30 1/2 Primrose St., charged with first-degree murder of Valerie Renee Devault, 19, who was stabbed to death Aug. 11 off Eastwood Dr. in East Orange County.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Florida; Saturday, February 2, 1980; Main Edition, Page 4 (Newspapers.com)

Metro Update

Orlando man found guilty in multiple-stabbing death

A 22-year-old Orlando man was found guilty of first-degree murder Friday in the August stabbing of Valerie Renee Devault, 19, of Orlando.

Joseph Alan Marter of 30 1/2 Primrose Drive will be held in Orange County jail until his sentencing Feb. 18 by Circuit Judge Frank Kaney. Marter could be sentenced to death in the electric chair.

Devault, who worked at the Club Mariner on the Naval Training Center base, was murdered after she left work at 1:30 a.m. Aug. 11. Her body was found the next morning near an abandoned car in Union Park. She died of multiple stab wounds.

Assistant State Attorney Belvin Perry said Marter gave police two accounts of what happened the night of the murder. In one statement, Marter told police he did not know Devault and had not been in her car.

Later, he told police he was in the area of Central Boulevard and Primrose Drive when Devault stopped in her car to ask Marter the directions to the University of Central Florida. He said he gave her directions and got a ride with her to the Cork 'N Cleaver restaurant on Colonel Drive where he got out.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Florida; Tuesday, February 10, 1980; Other Editions, Page 100 (Newspapers.com)

Jury recommends death

The jury that found Joseph Alan Marter guilty of murdering Valerie Renee Devault, 19, of Orlando, recommended Monday that he be electrocuted for the slaying.

Marter, 22, 30 1/2 Primrose Dr., was convicted of stabbing Miss Devault to death Aug. 11, sometime after she left work at the Club Mariner on the Naval Training Center base at 1:30 a.m.

Circuit Judge Kaney, who is not bound by the jury's recommendation, ordered a pre-sentence investigation. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Florida; Tuesday, April 1, 1980; Other Editions, Page 121 (Newspapers.com)

'It would be the easy thing, the politic thing, to sentence this defendant to

death and let the Supreme Court take the heat for lowering it to life.'

-- Judge Frank N. Kaney

Murderer given life sentence, despite jury's vote for death By MAY R. HEFFRON

Despite a jury's unanimous recommendation for execution, an Orange County circuit judge Monday sentenced a convicted murderer to life in prison.

Judge Frank N. Kaney sentenced Joseph Alan Marter, 22, for the August 1979 stabbing death of Valerie Renee Devault, 19.

Since his Feb. 1 conviction in the Devault case, Marter has been convicted of possession and use of a firearm by a convicted felon, kidnapping and rape in a separate case and sentenced to three consecutive life prison terms. Kaney ordered that this sentence be consecutive to Marter's other sentences.

In addition, deputy sheriffs have said Marter was involved in a March 7 escape attempt from the Orange County jail.

The Devault killing, Kaney said, "does not rise to Florida standards for the death penalty . . . To a layman, no capital crime would not be considered heinous," but a judge must compare different crimes and different defendants, he said. "Emotions of jurors can no longer sentence a man to die."

Assistant State Attorney Belvin Perry said he still thinks Marter deserves to go to the electric chair, but Kaney's ruling "took a lot of courage. It would have been quite easy for him to sentence the guy to death, . . . given that a jury voted 12-0 to fry this guy."

Mrs. Louise Devault of Washington, D.C., the victim's mother, sat attentively in the courtroom through the sentencing and was only quietly critical afterward.

"I don't like it . . . I don't know what else we can do," Mrs. Devault said. "I don't know if it's fair or unfair, I just think he's done enough already so that he would be put out of circulation completely."

Before sentencing Marter, Kaney read a long list of aggravating and mitigating factors ... such as whether the crime was particularly heinous, whether the defendant had already been convicted of a capital felony, whether the victim was a law officer -- that, according to Florida law, must be considered in a capital case.

The only aggravating factor he found, Kaney said, was Marter's previous conviction for a robbery in North Carolina. He found no mitigating factors.

"Were this a ball game or a soccer match, it would be possible to say it was a close match but death wins 1-0," Kaney said. But he said the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that death sentences must be "not a counting process but a reasonable judgment.

"It would be the easy thing, the politic thing, to sentence this defendant to death and let the Supreme Court take the heat for lowering it to life," Kaney said.

Kaney could not consider the earlier kidnap and rape convictions since they came after the murder conviction.

In his arguments to the jury that voted to execute Marter, Perry had found two other aggravating factors: the crime was especially cruel or heinous -- testimony showed Miss Devault bled to death from a punctured lung, and she did not die immediately -- and that it was cold, calculated and atrocious.

Miss DeVault, who worked at the Naval Training Center's Club Mariner, was killed after she left work at 1:30 a.m. Aug. 11. Her body was found the next morning near an abandoned car in Union Park. She died of multiple stab wounds.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Florida; Wednesday, April 2, 1980; Other Editions, Page 315 (Newspapers.com)

Life-termer appeals for execution By MARY R. HEFFRON Sentinel Star

A convicted murderer who was sentenced Monday to life in prison filed a motion in Orange County Circuit Court late Tuesday asking that he be executed.

The 1 1/2 page motion, handwritten in legal jargon, was filed by Joseph Alan Marter, 22, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the August 1979 stabbing death Valerie Renee Devault, 19.

"Comes now the defendant, Joseph Alan Marter, and moves the court to change my sentence from life imprisonment to death in the electric chair," the motion begins.

It list no reason for the request, but relatives indicated that Marter, acting as his own attorney, filed the motion so the Florida Supreme Court would review his case.

Under an amendment to the Florida Constitution adopted by voters last month, persons sentenced to life can appeal only to a district court of appeal.

Circuit Judge Frank N. Kaney had overruled a 12-0 jury decision that Marter be executed when he sentenced the thin, bookish defendant to a life term.

"I don't blame him, the death penalty is a much better penalty from his standpoint," Kaney said Tuesday. "He gets locked up in his own cell on death row.

"With his sentence, he'll be in general population at the Florida State Prison at Raiford. He's going to have to go to work. He's not going to get automatic appeal. He's not going to get an automatic stay from the federal court."

"The state has no opposition to that," said Assistant State Attorney Belvin Perry of Marter's motion. "The state would encourage the judge to grant it."

In sentencing Marter, Kaney said the Devault killing "does not rise to the Florida standards for the death penalty." Kaney found one aggravating factor and no mitigating factors among a list required by law to be considered before execution.

But he cited a Florida Supreme Court ruling that said death sentences must be "not a counting process but a reasonable judgment."

Marter faces three other consecutive life prison terms from his conviction last week of possession and use of a firearm by a convicted felon, kidnapping and rape in a separate case.

No hearing date was set for the death penalty motion, which also asks for new counsel, a new trial, and that Marter be declared indigent. However, Kaney indicated it may be heard April 18 along with other motions Marter has filed.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Florida; Friday, April 18, 1980; Main Edition, Page 30 (Newspapers.com)

A hearing scheduled for today in Orange County Circuit Court on a convicted murderer's motion for a new trial was delayed until May 2.

Circuit Judge Frank N. Kaney, who sentenced Joseph Alan Marter on March 31 to a life term, said he ordered the delay Wednesday because he thought it would interfere with an ongoing murder trial. A jury had unanimously recommended that Marter be executed.

Marter, 22, was convicted Feb. 1 of the Aug. 11 stabbing death of Valerie Renee Devault, 19. Her body was found in Union Park.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Florida; Thursday, June 18, 1992; Main Edition, Page 23 (Newspapers.com)

Killer who wanted to die found hanged in prison

The Orlando man's apparent suicide is being probed by state prison officials and the Volusia County Sheriff's Office. By Bo Poertner of the Sentinel Staff

A convicted killer who once asked the courts to grant his execution was found hanged Wednesday morning in his cell at the state Tomoka Correctional Institution.

The death of Joseph Alan Marter, 34, of Orlando, is an apparent suicide but is being investigated by the state Department of Corrections and the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, said David Lehr, spokesman for the corrections center.

Marter was convicted in March 1980 of first-degree murder, sexual battery, kidnapping and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was serving life plus 15 years, with 25 years mandatory.

He was convicted of killing Valery Renee Devault, 19, a waitress at the Orlando Naval Training Center.

Her body was found in August 1979 beside an abandoned car in Union Park. She had been stabbed and bled to death.

A jury recommended that Marter be executed in the electric chair. Circuit Judge Frank N. Kaney ruled that the killing did not meet the state's standard for the death penalty.

In a handwritten document that gave no reason for the request, Marter appealed to be executed.

Marter was found at 11:35 a.m. by his roommate, who was returning from a job assignment, Lehr said. Marter had a strip of cloth from a mattress cover around his neck and was hanging from a vent above the commode.

OBITUARY - Website: http://www.forbisanddick.com/obituaries/Jayme-Devault/#!/Obituary

MOCKSVILLE - Mrs. Jayme Lyn Powers DeVault, 55, died Sunday, November 29, 2015, at Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home in Winston-Salem.

She was born October 13, 1960, in Clearfield, PA, to Judy Winslow Powers of DuBois, PA and the late James Powers. Mrs. DeVault enjoyed singing in the choir at her church, Faith and Victory Worship Center.

Survivors include her husband of 30 years, Mike L. DeVault of the home; two sons, Greg DeVault of Charlotte and Zachary DeVault of Mocksville; two cousins; and one aunt.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research, 501 St. Jude’s Place, Memphis, TN, 38105; or a charity of the donor’s choice.

Online condolences may be made at www.eatonfuneralservice.com.