Superior Court Chief Judge William Prior Jr. told Robert Allen Danenberg he was sentenced to the penitentiary for the remainder of his life at the end of his trial last week, and most in the courtroom are hoping that statement is true.

The sentencing took place Nov. 20 and was the conclusion to a trial that began the week before concerning a crime that occurred two decades ago. The jury took less than two hours to make their decision.

Danenberg, 50, was represented by defense attorneys Frank Hogue and Robert Cullen, and neither attorney had a comment after the trial. The defendant did not appear to react to the verdict and was taken from the courtroom moments after the sentencing.

Assistant District Attorneys Gregory Bushway and Keagan Goodrich prosecuted Danenberg for the murder of Deborah Penland Lamb Nov. 13, 1988. Lamb was 30 and the mother of two sons ages 3 and 5. She was shot once in the chest and three times in the head with a .45 caliber weapon.

“Justice was delayed for 20 years, but the jury finally heard Debbie’s voice,” Bushway said after the sentencing.

The ADA said he and Goodrich have been working on the case since 2006.

“The more we dug, the more we found. It was almost overwhelming,” he said of the number of people who had been victims of Danenberg up to the time of the murder.

“It was a real challenge in part to organize all the evidence and then simplify it for the jury,” he added.

“He has a long list of victims,” Goodrich agreed.

Friends and family members of the victim remained in the courtroom for almost an hour after court adjourned. None of them wanted to be quoted individually, but they did state their appreciation of the way the case was handled by Bushway and Goodrich.

“We couldn’t have asked for any more than they gave to this,” a family member said.

Another of the group said she felt justice was served by the verdict.

“His [Danenberg’s] voice has been heard for 20 years. I feel like the truth came out today,” she said.

Chief Investigator Earl Humphries of the Jones County Sheriff’s Office said he was satisfied with the verdict.

“It took awhile to get here, but we got here. It’s satisfying to hear the jury say he was guilty when he never took responsibility,” he said.

Danenberg was arrested and charged for the murder the day of the event. He entered a guilty plea Aug. 4, 1989, and received a life sentence plus five years in the plea agreement, according to the Aug. 10, 1989, edition of The Jones County News. The five years was for an aggravated assault charge that was not included in last week’s trial.

The defendant was incarcerated in the state prison system until the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the plea Nov. 7, 2005, affirming the finding of a Richmond County Superior Court judge granting Danenberg a writ of habeas corpus Jan. 4, 2005. The judgment entitled the accused to a trial for the charges.



The court found that Danenberg’s counsel, Thomas Hinson, provided ineffective assistance because he failed to reasonably investigate the possible side effects of medication the defendant took at the time and that his attorney had a conflict of interest.



The issue of the drug Medrol, which was prescribed to Danenberg at the time of the shooting, and another unprescribed steroid he claimed to have been taking were the subject of hours of testimony of disagreeing experts.

State case

Jurors heard the testimony of Dale Danenberg McManis, the defendant’s ex-wife, who recounted the events leading up to and the day of the murder. The state also called a babysitter, rescue volunteers who responded to the crime scene, and Humphries, who was new to the job when called to the scene in 1988.

Pictures of the crime scene were entered into evidence during the investigator’s testimony as was an audiotape of Danenberg’s statement and the video interview of Lamb’s two sons days after the murder. The youngsters were the only eyewitnesses to the shooting.

The state put up witnesses establishing physical evidence, such as blood and fingerprints, and presented multiple witnesses to his volatile temper. Two federal prisoners, Travis Hunter and Janus Ragland, were the state’s final witnesses. The men were imprisoned with Danenberg and both stated they came forward because of his story of shooting a woman who was holding a baby. Neither man appeared to know the baby in the story was the defendant’s son.

The second of the prisoners was due to be paroled Oct. 14 and his testimony delayed his release.

“This was something that needed to be done,” Ragland said of his testimony.

The state rested Wednesday afternoon, and the defense’s case was completed by the end of the day.

Defense

Hogue called a psychologist who tested Danenberg 20 years ago and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Susan Fiester from Bethesda, Md., as an expert witness. Fiester was instrumental in the habeas hearings, which began in 2001 and ultimately led to Danenberg’s guilty plea being vacated.

The doctor blamed the psychiatric care of the defendant in 1988 for the murder.

“It was a tragic event. If he was my patient, he would have been on heavy duty medication and probably in an institution,” she said.

The defense rested after Fiester’s testimony. Danenberg did not testify.

The judge’s independent expert, Dr. Catherine Jacoby, was the last witness of the trial.

Jacoby said, in her opinion, Danenberg knew right from wrong at the time of the murder.

“He knew he was going to jail after the shooting and told his wife to call the police,” she stated. “He actually ended up calling the police himself and took the gun apart. He gave his wallet to his wife to give to his mother, and I consider each of these acts as significant.”

Jacoby said she believed the motive for the shooting was that the defendant was angry at his wife for leaving with the baby, and he blamed Debbie Lamb for giving her a place to live.

Closing arguments

Hogue began his closing by asking jurors not to consider what happened but why it happened. He did not dispute the fact that his client committed the murder, and his goal was to focus the attention of the panel members on what was going on inside Danenberg’s head.

“The prosecutor wants to focus your attention like a beam of light on a single moment in time. Malice murder requires proof of what happened and involves an abandoned and malignant heart,” he said.

The attorney told a story of a circus elephant who went wild and killed a young boy. The elephant was tried by the town and hung.

“To hold an animal who could have no intent to murder is wrong,” he said.

Hogue asked jurors when Danenberg abandoned his heart. He said his client’s difficulties began when he was 20 and he gradually became ‘unhitched’ from reality.

“It’s not about his presence of mind but that he was out of this mind,” he said.

Hogue did not ask the jury to find his client innocent but asked for a verdict of not guilty for reason of insanity.

Bushway talked about the day of the murder and characterized Danenberg as the grim reaper caring a .45 caliber pistol instead of a scythe.

“He fired four bullets into her body as she fed his child. If that’s not an abandoned and malignant heart, it does not exist,” he stated. “He didn’t just put holes in her body, he put holes in all the people who loved her. Now he comes in here and wants you to say it’s OK.”