Eric Sisler, a long-time Lexington attorney who twice served as commonwealth’s attorney for Lexington and Rockbridge County, died Tuesday, April 14, at age 81 at his home.
A native of Morgantown, W.Va., Sisler was a 1966 graduate of Washington and Lee University and a 1969 graduate of the W&L School of Law. He opened a law practice in Lexington in 1970 and served a single, initial term as commonwealth’s attorney from 1972 to 1976.
Sisler was appointed commonwealth’s attorney in 1986 to fill the unexpired term of Beverly C. “John” Read, who had stepped down amid an ethics investigation by the Virginia State Bar. Sisler was elected in 1987 and reelected in 1991, serving through 1995, when he was defeated for reelection by Gordon Saunders.
Sisler prosecuted many high profile cases during his years as commonwealth’s attorney and was a defense attorney in some notable cases as well. He was the prosecutor in the 1990 capital murder trial of Dennis Wayne Eaton, who was convicted of killing Virginia State Trooper Jerry Hines and sentenced to death. Eaton was executed in 1998. In 1982, Sisler was the defense attorney for Paul Maybush, who was convicted of killing Buena Vista police officer Billy Oyler but spared the death penalty.
Sisler had a law office in Lexington for decades and was in partnership with Robert N. “Bucky” Joyce for several years. Joyce was assistant commonwealth’s attorney under Sisler and later served as commonwealth’s attorney.
Sisler served as a substitute judge from 1983 to 1985. He was a member of the Order of the Coif and Omicron Delta Kappa, and was editor of the W&L Law Review while he was in law school. He was a past president of the Rockbridge-Buena Vista Bar Association.
