Jury convicts Dickenson County man of murder

By JIM TALBERT\Staff
TAZEWELL - “All I want is daddy back alive,’ seven-year-old Carlie Stanley said.
Stanley and her brother Dustin both testified in the murder trial of Anthony Gibson last week. Gibson, 40, was convicted of stabbing 44-year-old Deron Stanley of Clintwood to death in March of 2007.
The week long trial was held in Tazewell County after an attempt in Clintwood ended in a hung jury. The commonwealth’s case against Gibson was that he killed Stanley because he thought Stanley was a snitch and had turned him in for dealing drugs.
Whatever happened, the case highlights one of the tragedies that can come from involvement with drugs. Deron Stanley and his wife were separated and he had custody of the children. Witnesses at the trial said Deron Stanley supplied them with pills and the commonwealth’s case against Gibson was based on the idea they were connected in a cocaine business. Parents dealing drugs with children in the home is a situation Tazewell County Commonwealth’s Attorney Dennis Lee has seen several times.
Lee has indicted and convicted several people for child abuse in those situations. “He recalled one case where the tape of a snitch making a buy revealed a father fussing at a child for shaking the table while he was weighing cocaine.
The child told his father “dad I’m trying to do my homework.’ Carlie and Dustin remember their father playing with them and taking them shopping or to school. On the night of his death they remember him saying “go on, get out of here,’ and “oh now you’ve done it,’ in a loud voice.
The jury heard the tape of their call to 911 and the testimony of a heart broken mother recalling her son calling at 4 a.m. to say daddy was bleeding and ask what he should do. He told the 911 operator there was blood everywhere and asked them to send an ambulance and the police. That was the start of an ordeal for the two children who now live with their aunt.
They both spent several hours being questioned by attorneys, investigators and counselors, who were trying to piece together what happened the night their father was killed.
“It was not easy to keep going back and asking but we had to know,’ Dickenson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Short said. Getting them to talk about the case was a long process and it took a pair of week long trials before Gibson was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Problems for the children will likely not end with the conviction. Dustin Stanley said in his statements to the court that he should have helped daddy and he was not as brave as cissy.
Carlie often said she was afraid the killer would come back and harm mam-maw or papaw or another member of their family.