Gerry Lee Sword is charged with illegally disposing of a body.Man pleads guilty to improperly disposing body in Manassas
http://www.insidenova.com/news/crime_police/man-pleads-guilty-to-improperly-disposing-body-in-manassas/article_c650a19a-f86b-11e2-9af6-0019bb2963f4.html


A Springfield man pleaded guilty Monday to improperly disposing a body found burned in Manassas last year.

Gerry Lee Sword, 49, entered an Alford plea of guilty in Prince William Circuit Court to illegally disposing the body of Antonio Ricardo Bailey.

Police said Bailey, 44, was found dead in a vacant parking lot on the 9000 block of Church Street, near the Olde Towne Inn just after 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 30.

According to court documents, a security video from the motel shows Gerry Sword and his brother, Richard Sword, carrying Bailey’s lifeless body out of room 43 and placing it into Richard Sword’s van sometime between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. The brothers then drove the van across the street, removed Bailey’s body and set it on fire, the court documents state.

The medical examiner found Bailey died from adverse effects of alcohol, Prozac and Benadryl.

His body was burned after his death, prosecutors said Monday.

Richard and Gerry Sword were first charged with murder in the case, but prosecutors later amended the charges because of the medical examiner’s findings.

Gerry Sword is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12.

Richard Sword pleaded guilty to the same charge at a hearing in June and is set to be sentenced on Aug. 15.

Both men face up to five years in prison.
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Well that is pretty bizarre.

Anyone know if these Sword brothers were worker bees or the proprietors of this hotel? Sounds like there are some details missing. Like someone else finding the body or being notified of it and these guys the getting involved. What a shady operation... and disgusting.

Benadryl kills again!

As long as you don't get caught, I guess it's cheaper than paying a funeral home.

Why not just call 911, they would come pick up the body and take it the hospital. It's a hotel right? The whole thing still seems shady to me.

asdfasdfasfd Wrote:
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> Why not just call 911, they would come pick up the
> body and take it the hospital. It's a hotel right?
> The whole thing still seems shady to me.


Hey dumbass, the dude was already dead, so it would have been pointless to take him to a hospital. Better to call an undertaker or funeral home instead.

You asked "why not call 911" You must be incredibly stupid! 911 is for emergencies only, and a dead body is not an emergency unless it is very fresh and the rescue squad has a chance of reviving the recently-deceased. Calling 911 after someone is already dead and cold/stiff/stinking is an illegal abuse of 911 and would get you arrested.

If the deceased wanted to be creamated they should have taken him to a funeral home that has a proper incinerator to burn the body more completely.

Fairfax County has no room for amateur morticians. Leave cremation to the professionals.

What a load of idiots.

Morticia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> asdfasdfasfd Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Why not just call 911, they would come pick up
> the
> > body and take it the hospital. It's a hotel
> right?
> > The whole thing still seems shady to me.
>
>
> Hey dumbass, the dude was already dead, so it
> would have been pointless to take him to a
> hospital. Better to call an undertaker or funeral
> home instead.
>
> You asked "why not call 911" You must be
> incredibly stupid! 911 is for emergencies only,
> and a dead body is not an emergency unless it is
> very fresh and the rescue squad has a chance of
> reviving the recently-deceased. Calling 911 after
> someone is already dead and cold/stiff/stinking is
> an illegal abuse of 911 and would get you
> arrested.
>
> If the deceased wanted to be creamated they should
> have taken him to a funeral home that has a proper
> incinerator to burn the body more completely.
>
> Fairfax County has no room for amateur morticians.
> Leave cremation to the professionals.
>
> What a load of idiots.

A dead body in room is an emergency idiot!

asdfasdfasfd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Morticia Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > asdfasdfasfd Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Why not just call 911, they would come pick
> up
> > the
> > > body and take it the hospital. It's a hotel
> > right?
> > > The whole thing still seems shady to me.
> >
> >
> > Hey dumbass, the dude was already dead, so it
> > would have been pointless to take him to a
> > hospital. Better to call an undertaker or
> funeral
> > home instead.
> >
> > You asked "why not call 911" You must be
> > incredibly stupid! 911 is for emergencies
> only,
> > and a dead body is not an emergency unless it
> is
> > very fresh and the rescue squad has a chance of
> > reviving the recently-deceased. Calling 911
> after
> > someone is already dead and cold/stiff/stinking
> is
> > an illegal abuse of 911 and would get you
> > arrested.
> >
> > If the deceased wanted to be creamated they
> should
> > have taken him to a funeral home that has a
> proper
> > incinerator to burn the body more completely.
> >
> > Fairfax County has no room for amateur
> morticians.
> > Leave cremation to the professionals.
> >
> > What a load of idiots.
>
> A dead body in room is an emergency idiot!


Dead bodies are not an emergency. You call police on the non-emergency line and request for the coroner.

Is it necessary for medical to respond with full lights and sirens for someone who is already dead when there is no other threat? Do you know how many calls the police get for welfare checks and it turns out to be a DOA (dead on arrival)? Absolutely NO emergency - its standard stuff.

Holy Shnikeys.

I'm all for running a tight ship, but if these guys were just a couple of rednecks whose buddy happened to croak while partying too much, what good is it going to do to put them in jail and "punish them" or try and "rehab them"?

Not only might my tax dollars be going towards 1) the "trial" and their court appointed defense (if that is the direction they go with that) and 2) their incarceration if that is the result and 3) lack of tax revenue from them while they are incarcerated (if in fact that is the result) but I think the whole thing might possibly be a waste of freaking time.

What is the point?

So they don't do it again?

LOL.

Man to serve five years for setting body on fire
http://www.insidenova.com/news/crime_police/man-to-serve-five-years-for-setting-body-on-fire/article_c2cc4418-0a57-11e3-805d-001a4bcf887a.html

Authorities don’t know exactly what happened in Olde Towne Inn’s room 43 in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, prosecutors said Thursday.

What is known is that 44-year-old Antonio Bailey died there, and he died of a drug overdose, according to the medical examiner.

“We have no idea the circumstances surrounding that event,” assistant commonwealth’s attorney Brian Boyle said.

Prosecutors do know that after Bailey was dead, Richard Dale Sword and his brother, Gerry Lee Sword, who had been hanging out with Bailey before his death took his lifeless body, put it in a van, drove it across the street from the motel and set it on fire.

The Sword brothers both pleaded guilty to concealing a dead body, a class 6 felony. At a hearing in Prince William Circuit Court Thursday, substitute Judge Benjamin Kendrick sentenced Richard Sword, 51, of Springfield, to serve five years in prison, the maximum allowed by law. He also ordered Sword to serve three years of probation after his release. Gerry Sword is set to be sentenced in December.

Thursday, Bailey’s sister, Veronica Bailey wiped tears from her eyes on the witness stand as she spoke about the loss of her brother.

“It has took a terrible toll on everyone,” Veronica Bailey said of her family, adding that her mother was hit especially hard by Bailey’s death.

“It tore her apart,” she said. “Tony was her baby boy…someone just took her baby, and they just burned him like he was trash, like he was nothing.

Prosecutors said Bailey, Richard Sword and Gerry Sword were drinking and “partying” in their motel room on the night of Oct. 29, as Hurricane Sandy passed through the area.

About 3 a.m. on Oct. 30, a surveillance video from the motel, which prosecutors played in court Thursday, shows Richard and Gerry Sword dragging Bailey’s body out of the hotel room, placing it in Richard Sword’s white Ford van and driving across the street to a vacant parking lot on the 9000 block of Church Street in Manassas. There, at 3:18 a.m., according to the surveillance footage, Richard Sword set Bailey’s body on fire.

Police said Bailey’s body was discovered in the parking lot just after 7:30 a.m. that day.

According to the medical examiner’s report, Bailey died of an overdose of Benadryl, Prozac and alcohol. Because no soot was found in his nose or lungs, the medical examiner determined that Bailey died before his body was set on fire.

Veronica Bailey said she spoke to her brother on the phone the night before he died and “felt something funny.”

She said Richard Sword took the phone from Bailey and spoke to her.

“He promised me that he would take care of my brother,” she said through tears Thursday. “And he didn’t.”

Richard Dale Sword is charged with illegally disposing of a body.
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Geez, my dog looks smarter than these two.

Dick Sword is an awesome name

the penitentiary is mightier than the sword.

tough on crime or waste of time Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Holy Shnikeys.
>
> I'm all for running a tight ship, but if these
> guys were just a couple of rednecks whose buddy
> happened to croak while partying too much, what
> good is it going to do to put them in jail and
> "punish them" or try and "rehab them"?
>
> Not only might my tax dollars be going towards 1)
> the "trial" and their court appointed defense (if
> that is the direction they go with that) and 2)
> their incarceration if that is the result and 3)
> lack of tax revenue from them while they are
> incarcerated (if in fact that is the result) but I
> think the whole thing might possibly be a waste of
> freaking time.
>
> What is the point?
>
> So they don't do it again?
>
> LOL.


^ This.

I mean granted it's some weird shit and you don't want people out burning their dead buddies bodies all over town but I don't see 5 years. Sounds like 3 vagrant alcoholics living out of a Manassass motel who weren't rocket scientists to begin with and probably all drunker than shit who did something that only drunk morons would think to do. Gotta do something to them I guess but not sure what it really accomplishes.

Looks like they may be better off on the inside for a while anyway so maybe that's a good thing.

>the penitentiary is mightier than the sword.

Booooooooooo. He that would pun would pick a pocket.

The brothers then set the (dead) body on fire, the court documents state.

There is no reason to burn a body except to hide evidence. That is the major assumption. They would have to argue well they had a cause to burn the body that was non-criminal. They did not.

They can make an Alford plea but that doesn't mean anything. "you'll probably find me guilty due to facts on hand so hold the trial"

So what? They were going to hold a trial anyway. The Alford plea here is a mute statement, only an interjection.

In very limitited circumstances of reasonings, the Alford plea might mean something. However it will usually mean "i enter a plea of guilty but don't admit i'm guilty" which is not an allowable statement in court.

Furthermore the "original" Alford plea was used to allow the perpetrator to sue for re-trail base on the falability of the Alford plea. That's right: full of crap form the inception.

There are many pleas and (affirmative) defense combinations to choose from. This new contrivance, "alford", is simply junk.

hey alford: Ambiguitas contra stipulatorem est - An ambiguity is most strongly construed against the party using it.

yea you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know there is no need to burn a body.

what that means is the balance of question tips to defense (the judge allows the question to be asked, which must be answered sufficiently else a conviction arises)

i'm unsure how you defend a "reason to burn a body" that doesn't involve being complicit. not my problem.

Dude really cleans up. He went from appearing to be homeless to looking like a meth addict.

You would think an alike body would burn like a torch. I was sitting to a drunk woman in a bar one day. She sort of passed out and laid her head next to a lit cigarette. The grease in her hair burned like a sparkler.

JustanFYI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dude really cleans up. He went from appearing to
> be homeless to looking like a meth addict.
>
>
>

I think these are the two brothers, not the same person.

Why burn the body? Why not dump it in the park and drive away?

svennestle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The brothers then set the (dead) body on fire, the
> court documents state.
>
> There is no reason to burn a body except to hide
> evidence. That is the major assumption. They
> would have to argue well they had a cause to burn
> the body that was non-criminal. They did not.
>

That is a stupid load of crap.

Burning of bodies is a time-honored tradition going back millennia. Body-burning was proudly practiced by the Vikings and is very popular in modern-day India and elsewhere around the world today. (Segments of the funeral home industry may not like it because they can't make as much money.)

There is nothing inherently criminal in burning a body, especially that of a smelly drug-addicted person who probably wouldn't clean up very well for a traditional viewing and casket burial.

Apart from traditional religious reasons, there are plenty of practical reasons to burn bodies. To name just a few:

1. Swampy or low-lying land would cause a body to pop up to the surface during heavy rains.

2. Limited space in cemeteries, and high cost of burial land.

3. High costs of funeral services such as preparing body for viewing, casket cost, gravediggers, etc.

4. Desire to keep the loved one's remains in the home. This is typically not legal or practical unless the body is cremated. It also gives more flexibility for living relatives to move around and not need to visit a cemetery in a distant state. Cremated remains can be divided up among family members (or in this case the two Sword brothers).

Determining the environmental footprint is more complicated. Open-air burning would release a lot of carbon and particulate matter into the atmosphere, whereas burying the body would sequester the carbon. However the crypt, casket, backhoes, hearse, etc. factor against burial. Possibly the ideal method is the Zoroastrian practice of simply placing a loved one on a raised platform for the vultures to consume.

creamator Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Determining the environmental footprint is more
> complicated. Open-air burning would release a lot
> of carbon and particulate matter into the
> atmosphere, whereas burying the body would
> sequester the carbon. However the crypt, casket,
> backhoes, hearse, etc. factor against burial.
> Possibly the ideal method is the Zoroastrian
> practice of simply placing a loved one on a raised
> platform for the vultures to consume.

Wouldn't the decaying body release gases anyway into the atmosphere and contaminate the soil (and drinking water?) from the amonia by-product?

tough on crime or waste of time Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Holy Shnikeys.
>
> I'm all for running a tight ship, but if these
> guys were just a couple of rednecks whose buddy
> happened to croak while partying too much, what
> good is it going to do to put them in jail and
> "punish them" or try and "rehab them"?
>
> Not only might my tax dollars be going towards 1)
> the "trial" and their court appointed defense (if
> that is the direction they go with that) and 2)
> their incarceration if that is the result and 3)
> lack of tax revenue from them while they are
> incarcerated (if in fact that is the result) but I
> think the whole thing might possibly be a waste of
> freaking time.
>
> What is the point?
>
> So they don't do it again?
>
> LOL.

They are not rednecks. They are both staunch Obama supporters and were just following the new Obamacare guidelines for disposing of bodies.

I want to get drunk we these guys!!!!

Clarified Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> creamator Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Determining the environmental footprint is more
> > complicated. Open-air burning would release a
> lot
> > of carbon and particulate matter into the
> > atmosphere, whereas burying the body would
> > sequester the carbon. However the crypt,
> casket,
> > backhoes, hearse, etc. factor against burial.
> > Possibly the ideal method is the Zoroastrian
> > practice of simply placing a loved one on a
> raised
> > platform for the vultures to consume.
>
> Wouldn't the decaying body release gases anyway
> into the atmosphere and contaminate the soil (and
> drinking water?) from the amonia by-product?

Actually the reason the body is put on a platform is to prevent contaminating the soil. Traditionally the process is too fast for the body to decay. The vultures pick the bones clean in a few hours. Crows and other birds also join in the feast, but you need vultures to get the job done effectively in a timely manner.

Late last century Zoroastrians in India had to alter their funeral practices. Cattle were being fed a drug which was fatal to vultures when they fed on cattle carcasses. The remaining birds were not able to pick up the slack of eating all the human corpses. The offending drug has been banned and there are plans to reintroduce vultures into the wild.

I know the reasons for cremating a body, cremator, but I can only presume it takes a hella big fire to do it. Open air burning would be far more likely to cook it than incinerate it. Something tells me Eesh has a picture to demonstrate this.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2013 09:18PM by abelard.

Artie Lange Wrote:
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> I want to get drunk we these guys!!!!


The last guy who got drunk with the brothers end up as the weenie roast.