Attorney who prosecuted Russ Faria twice for murder will defend former deputy accused of lying in both trials

Gregory Orear

General Manager/Editor

TROY – A former Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy accused of lying twice in a pair of highly-publicized murder trials has a new attorney: the prosecutor who had him testify.

A Lincoln County grand jury indicted Michael Merkel, 45, in June on two counts of perjury to secure a murder conviction, a Class A felony.

Tuesday, a new attorney joined Merkel’s defense team, filing an entry of appearance with the circuit court: Leah Chaney.

Chaney prosecuted Russell Faria twice for the 2011 murder of his wife, Betsy.

Merkel provided key testimony in the original trial and Faria’s retrial where he was found innocent, indicating blood had been cleaned up from the crime scene. However, he testified in both trials a camera malfunction resulted in photos taken at the crime scene of showing “absolutely nothing.”

However, during the retrial, Faria’s defense attorney, Joel Schwartz, produced 132 photos contradicting Merkel’s testimony.

Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney Mike Wood defeated Chaney in 2018 and two years later, Rick Harrell defeated John Cottle in the race for sheriff.

Coincidentally, Chaney’s brother, Bill Wommack, unsuccessfully ran again Harrell in his re-election bid in August 2024.

After filing paperwork with the court to represent Merkel, Chaney then filed a bond reduction request.

Merkel’s other attorney, Joel Eisenstein, already filed a motion that would remove the house arrest and GPS-monitoring provision to his $50,000 cash-only bond. Chaney requested even more concessions.

“Defendant respectfully prays for an Order from this Honorable Court reducing the monetary bond to an amount reasonably calculated to ensure his appearance,” Chaney wrote in the motion. “Remove the conditions of house arrest and electronic monitoring (and) modify bond conditions to allow Defendant to maintain employment and meet ordinary life obligations.”

Chaney also stated in the bond reduction request that the state commissioned a “comprehensive review” and found no criminal wrongdoing.

“That expert report concluded unequivocally that Defendant committed no criminal conduct in connection with the matters now alleged in this indictment,” Chaney states.

However, Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney Mike Wood told The Journal he has never seen that report. In fact, he told the Journal he doubts the report even exists.

Citing that allegedly fictitious report, Chaney claimed Merkel’s prosecution is politically motivated.

“Despite that finding, and after many years without any allegation of misconduct, the State has now brought charges that stand in direct contradiction to the earlier independent conclusions, coinciding conspicuously with political campaigns centered on ‘restoring justice’ and addressing alleged law enforcement corruption,” she said.

When he ran in 2018, Wood promised to reopen the Betsy Faria murder case while also pledging to determine how an innocent man was sent to prison for nearly four years.

Since then, in addition to the perjury charges against Merkel, Wood’s office filed murder charges against Pam Hupp in Betsy’s death.

Hupp dropped Betsy off at her Troy home that night and four days prior, was named a beneficiary on one of her three life insurance policies.

After Russ’ release from prison, Hupp shot and killed Louis Gumpenberger in an attempt to implicate Faria. She entered an Alford Plea to a murder charge and is now serving a life sentence in the Chillicothe Correctional Institute.

She is scheduled to stand trial on Betsy’s death in August of 2026.

Also earlier this week, Wood’s office dropped felony stalking and harassment charges against Merkel.

Merkel and his wife, Becky, and brother, Kevin, were accused of sending threatening messages to Lincoln County Deputy Randy Lambert, who was investigating allegations of misconduct in the Faria case.

As reported in a separate article this week in the Lincoln County Journal, a judge set a February 2026 trial date on those charges, just before the prosecutor dismissed them.

Wood said while those charges are dismissed for now, he anticipates consolidating them with other charges in the next couple of weeks.