MARK STAMEY UNAWARE HE WAS... IN THE PRESENCE OF A SERIAL KILLER

During and for a few days after the time when five Gaffney residents were gunned down in cold blood, Mark Stamey hung out and got high with Patrick Tracy Burris, not aware Burris was the killer. On Thursday, Stamey sat down with The Gaffney Ledger and discussed the time he spent with Burris.

MARK STAMEY — "I feel guilty for not putting two and two together. I feel like I let some people down. I feel like I let myself down." DALLAS, N.C. — Mark Stamey says he's often kept awake at night, replaying events in his mind over and over.

Nausea has repeatedly attacked his stomach while he's thought about what had occurred, what he did and didn't notice, and what could have been. Underneath the skin, there's an admitted sense of guilt.

"I feel guilty for not putting two and two together," he conceded. "I feel like I let some people down. I feel like I let myself down."

Had he known the person he met through a drug dealer, and "partied" with for several days, was a serial killer, he would have done something.

He wishes he could have done something.

"If I could take the place of any of those (five) people, I would have," he said.

Hindsight is always 20/20, though. With clear vision, he now believes he and his younger sister, Sharon, were likely next on the killer's list.

Patrick Tracy Burris didn't want to leave any witnesses behind, he believes.

Stamey said he and his sister first met Burris, whom they knew only as "Pat" or by nicknames like "Country" and "Big C," about two weeks before July 6. He's not exactly sure of the date.

They were introduced to him by a drug dealer, he said.

They would ultimately and unknowingly "party" with Burris shortly after he killed two people July 1, and after he shot two more people July 2.

They would then spend almost every waking hour with him from July 2 until July 6, when Burris was killed in a shootout with Gaston County Police Department officers inside a vacant home owned by Stamey's family.

On Thursday, Stamey, 36, an unemployed plumber having trouble finding work because of his past and his unwitting association with a killer, sat down with The Gaffney Ledger beside a serene pond at a Dallas, N.C., public park to discuss what happened, how he came to know Burris, and to tell his side of a story that will likely haunt and follow him for the rest of his life.

"I feel like the people down in Gaffney deserve it," he said.

What he said during a more than hour-long interview painted a picture of a killer who gave few indications of the violence that lurked within.

"For some reason, we never did have any fear," Stamey said, even though Burris possessed a "bully persona" and carried a gun with him at all times.

Stamey said that during their initial encounter about two weeks before July 6, he and his sister met Burris at a hotel room in Gastonia, where they consumed crack cocaine.

Stamey recalled that Burris used an aluminum can to "cook" the crack twice, a process that made it stronger.

Five or six days would then pass before the brother and sister saw Burris again.

On Wednesday, July 1, at about 10 p.m. Stamey said they were invited to meet with Burris at a Hampton Inn in Gastonia.

This occurred just a few hours after police say Burris shot and killed 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-yearold daughter, Gena Linder Parker, inside Linder's home on Buck Shoals Road.

At the hotel, Burris was supplying the drugs.

"He (Burris) didn't do any other drugs I know of," Stamey said.

And the drugs were powerful.

Stamey wasn't a novice with drugs at the time, but the drugs Burris offered seemed far more potent for some reason, Stamey said. Maybe, Stamey believes, Burris added something extra.

They stayed the night with Burris until checkout time at the hotel the following morning and the drug dealer that had introduced the three later asked if he could bring Burris to Stamey's residence.

Stamey agreed and went home and recalled Burris arriving about an hour or so later.

"I was so tired I went in and laid down on the bed," Stamey said. He heard Burris arrive at about 12:30 p.m. July 2 but didn't have any interaction with him.

"I woke up around 3:30 (p.m.) Everybody in the house was passed out and he (Burris) was gone."

Burris allegedly traveled to Gaffney around this time, where he shot and killed 48- year-old Stephen Tyler and critically injured Tyler's 15- year-old daughter, Abby, who died two days later, inside the Tyler family's business on East Frederick Street.

Stamey would next hear from Burris around 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. the same night.

He remembers that nothing about Burris seemed out of place. Conversations were normal, like nothing had happened at all.

Each time Burris returned from a trip, he returned with cash in hand to continue purchasing drugs. The reality of how Burris got that money continues to sicken Stamey.

"That's what makes me sick, knowing that he was killing those people and stealing money and spending it on us," Stamey said.

They thought the money was coming from weapons sales.

"He told us he sold guns," Stamey said. "That's where we thought the money was coming from."

Burris carried with him a .25 caliber pistol, which he always kept close by, either on his nightstand in his hotel rooms or in his pocket. Police would later link that gun to all five killings in Gaffney through ballistic tests.

At the time, Burris' possession of a weapon wasn't worrisome to Stamey, nor was the likelihood that Burris' alleged weapons dealing was illegal.

The lifestyle he was leading, Stamey conceded, allowed him to tolerate such facts.

"It didn't make me nervous he had it around," he said, "because he didn't play with it."

Burris had told the Stameys he had just gotten out of prison after 18 years for a murder charge, Stamey said. In fact, Burris had never before been charged with murder but was recently paroled from a long jail sentence on a string of burglary and property crimes.

He had also told the Stameys he had violated his probation, which was true. In fact, North Carolina authorities had a warrant for his arrest on a probation violation. While they had no idea Burris was the killer wanted in Gaffney, Stamey remembered Burris was fixated on the television news of the killings.

"He would be like infatuated with it," he said.

And he even cracked a few "distasteful" jokes about it, Stamey remembered. For instance, Burris wondered aloud why the police were calling the killer a serial

killer, and whether that meant he ate "cereal" after each killing.

When the television news showed the a new sketch of the serial killer on July 3, Stamey ribbed Burris about the similarities. "I said, 'Pat, if you had a hat on, that would look just like you,' He said, 'No it don't.'"

The television news then gave a description of the killer's champagne-colored sport utility vehicle, another similarity with Burris, though police were looking for a twodoor model while Burris had a four-door model.

"Don't let that be you," Stamey remembers joking to Burris at the time, telling him he'd even turn his own sister in if she was responsible.

"That's how comfortable we were with (Burris)," Stamey said.

Burris, who had been fixated on the news, did something unusual when the vehicle description ran on the television, though. He shut the television off.

The drug money started running out some time on Saturday, July 4. The trio would eventually wind up back at the North Marietta Street home, where Stamey had been staying with a friend.

An encounter occurred that day that could have ended far differently, Stamey said.

The landlord of the North Marietta Street home brought police with him to chase Stamey and anyone else there away. The landlord even got in Burris' face, Stamey said.

Stamey said the police had him and Burris sit on the ground outside. Burris whispered to him and showed him his .25 caliber gun, which he had hidden under his armpit, Stamey said.

Eventually, he said, they were told to leave the premises.

They would then go to a Motel 6, where Stamey was able to get a shower.

Burris parted with him, but only for a while. He came back with $50 cash and some more drugs, Stamey recalled, though he had no clue where Burris went or got the drugs.

About 1 a.m. on Monday, July 6, with Stamey behind the wheel of Burris' sport utility vehicle, they dropped by a McDonald's so Burris could get some food. They then dropped by another location, looking to "crash" at Stamey's friend's home, before ending up on Dallas Spencer Mountain Road at 2:38 a.m.

The Stamey family owned a vacant home on Dallas

Spencer Mountain Road and Stamey knew how to get inside, though he said they hadn't been there in at least a year and a half.

For at least 15 minutes, he said, they stayed in Burris' vehicle smoking cigarettes while Burris finished eating.

Just as they were getting out of the vehicle to go inside, Gaston County Police arrived after being called by a neighbor.

Stamey knew two of the three officers who arrived, having played basketball in the past with one of them.

"It's our property, so I started walking to the police," Stamey said. "They asked what we were doing there."

A female police officer who responded to the scene asked who was inside the SUV. She approached and asked Burris to get out and asked for his identification.

Stamey doesn't know what identification Burris provided.

Minutes later, however, Stamey said the police allowed the trio to enter the home after confirming the Stameys owned the place.

Inside the home Stamey said he asked Burris for a cigarette and Burris replied they were in the vehicle. Burris then asked Stamey for the keys so he could go get them and he went back outside.

Perhaps, Stamey reasons in hindsight, it was to procure his pistol.

Stamey said he and his sister then went to a back bedroom, where they lit some candles in the home, which had no electricity, and prepared a bed.

Burris came back inside and laid on the couch.

Stamey had noticed the police were still outside the home, but thought they would eventually leave.

Just as he was blowing out the candles in the bedroom, however, a knock sounded at the door. It was about 3 a.m., he recalled.

As he was trying to make his way to the door in the unlit home, Stamey said the police started knocking louder.

"They said they needed to speak with Mr. Burris," he said.

That was the first time he ever heard Burris' last name, he said.

After talking with the officers, Stamey said he went to Burris, who was lying on the couch, and tried to shake him.

Burris "grumbled."

Stamey said he then turned around to go back and get his sister. As he was walking away in the dark home, he heard the female officer yell "Gun!"

Based on the different sounds of the weapons, Stamey said, "I heard (Burris) fire two rounds. Then I heard them (the police) return fire."

Stamey and his sister had hidden behind a kitchen wall when the gunfire broke out. When the gunfire ended, Stamey said he knew police would come for them next so he laid on the floor to show he was no danger.

"I was in shock," he said.

"Me and my sister had the same thought. We were hoping that police had shot him (Burris) and that he hadn't killed any of them."

Stamey was put in handcuffs and led outside. Burris was lying dead on the floor of the home with three bullet holes in his chest and blood coming out of his mouth, Stamey recalled.

Stamey said he was so shocked by what happened that he didn't recall being able to blink or utter a word for some time.

He was taken to the Gaston County Police Department, where he was held until about 5:30 p.m. that afternoon after being interviewed by local police, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

In between, he gave samples of his DNA, fingerprints, palm prints and anything else asked of him, he said.

Just a few hours after his release, Stamey said he learned like everyone else, that Burris was the man sought for the Cherokee County killings.

"We're still in shock," he said.

The first two weeks after Burris' death, Stamey said he chose to stay indoors and reclusive.

While he has legal problems hanging over his head, namely a drug charge that stemmed from an incident before his encounter with Burris, he's gone cold turkey from drugs and says that monkey no longer hangs on his back.

Free of drugs, he estimates he's put 20 or 30 pounds back on his six foot frame.

"I look up at the sky every day and give thanks," he said. "I appreciate the small things more than I ever have before."

He's found some solace in prayer, both in his own and those praying for him.

He's no longer associating with people who were bad influences on his life, he said, and he has been embracing the support of his family.

He also hoped that a recent letter he wrote to the citizens of Gaffney, published in The Gaffney Ledger, was accepted by those who live here.

He has questions just like many in Gaffney.

"Even though Mr. Burris was a nasty human being, he still had a soul," he said. "I don't understand what made him snap."

He remains sorry that he was ever introduced to Burris, and that he never picked up warning signs that might have made a difference.

"The whole time I was with him, my sister said the same thing, it felt like we were in a bubble," he said.

Nothing, it seemed, existed outside that bubble centered around a person who Stamey believes was a master manipulator.

"I guess that's the definition of a sociopath," he said. "That someone could commit heinous acts and act like nothing ever happened."