Silver Comet killer called psychopath; family seeks mercy

Michael Ledford, convicted of a 2006 murder on the Silver Comet Trail, is a psychopath, not the damaged alcoholic who could not control his rage, an expert testified Thursday.

Rome-based forensic psychologist Kevin Richards said Ledford, convicted of murdering Jennifer Ewing, was capable of making choices, but doesn't. Richards, called by the prosecution, said he found in his evaluation of Ledford an anti-social drunk and psychopath.

The psychiatrist said Ledford, 46, is callous and lacks empathy and has a "reckless disregard for the safety of others and also "glib, superficial and charming," despite his circumstances.

Much of the testimony Thursday in the sentencing trial Ledford came from experts.

Though his mother, brother and two adult sons also were called to ask the jury to spare him, the experts interpretations of Ledford's brain and his mental problems was the last evidence the jury will hear before closing arguments Friday morning.

First on Thursday, defense lawyers called experts to testify that Ledford's life was one molded by decades of drinking too much beer, brain damage from falling 50 feet out of a tree, sexual abuse as a young boy and his dysfunctional family, some of them living in Dallas, Ga. Ledford's lawyers are hoping the details of Ledford's troubled life will persuade jurors to sentence him to life in prison without parole or life with the possibility of parole instead of death.

Prosecutors followed the testimony of those experts with experts of their own, called to discount everything the defense's psychiatrist and forensic psychologists had said Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.

For instance, Richards reminded the 10 men and two women on the jury of a tape-recorded telephone conversation they heard earlier in the week. Ledford, in jail, was talking with his 14-year-old niece just a few weeks after he was arrested for ambushing Ewing as she biked her regular 50-mile ride on the Silver Comet Trail on July 25, 2006.

"It was like he was flirting," Richards said of Ledford's conversation with his niece. "He was joking about being a celebrity."

Richards, recalling the recorded conversation, noted that Ledford told his niece things such as "you look good in a bikini ... you hot little 14-year-old self," and in the last minute of that phone call with the girl, Ledford made a passing "reference to phone sex."

Though devoid of a conscience, Richards said Ledford still could control himself, even when he was in severe pain from Ewing's bite when he tried to force her to perform oral sex on him.

The autopsy showed the 53-year-old Sandy Springs mother was punched more than 30 times and stomped at least twice. Ledford crushed her nose and larynx, broke several ribs and left so many deep bruises on her body that most of them melded into one. She smothered 25 to 30 minutes later because her chest was crushed.