THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 17, 1994 TAG: 9408170421
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LaFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
An 18-year-old charged with capital murder in the death of an undercover police officer during a pizza robbery didn't mean to kill the officer and only shot him out of fear when the officer pulled a gun, the teenager's lawyers argued during the first day of his trial.
Nephus Shann Stanley and three hungry friends ordered two large hamburger and cheese pizzas from a Chanello's pizza restaurant on the night of Jan. 11 and then waited in the cold behind some bushes near Stanley's Denbigh apartment complex, defense attorney B. Thomas Reed told the jury during opening arguments Tuesday.
But when the pizza bag turned out to be empty and the delivery man reached for a gun, Reed said, Stanley got scared and shot the officer four times as he lay on the ground.
The officer's partner, who has described the killing as an execution, is ``mistaken and wrong,'' Reed said.
``I do not know whether we are dealing with a tangled web or a psychological explanation that is satisfying to the surviving partner,'' he told the jury.
But Newport News Commonwealth's Attorney Howard Gwynn holds to the partner's version of events. On the night 28-year-old Officer Steven Rutherford died, Gwynn said, Stanley ordered him to lie prone. He then stood over Rutherford and fired four bullets as the officer rolled frantically, trying to get away, and his partner crouched in the back of an unmarked car calling for help on his police radio.
``Pow!'' Gwynn shouted at the jury while describing the shots.
``The first shot was deflected by his bulletproof vest. Pow! Another shot . entered the back of his hip and traveled to his heart.
``It didn't happen on TV. It didn't happen in the movies. It happened right here in Newport News.''
Stanley, a small figure wearing a baggy white polo shirt, loose khakis without a belt and sneakers, gazed ahead as both sides argued. He is charged with capital murder, armed robbery and two counts of using a gun to commit a felony and could get the death penalty if the jury finds the killing was willful, deliberate and premeditated.
His attorneys hope Stanley, who confessed to police on the night of the crime, will be convicted of a lesser form of felony murder. Antoine Speed, another 18-year-old charged in the case, was convicted of first-degree murder in June. Another defendent, Earl Antonio Coleman-Bay, 19, was found guilty of attempted robbery but acquitted on a murder charge in July.
On the last night of his life, Rutherford was ordered to disguise himself as a Chanello's delivery man and drive a Hyundai bearing a Chanello's sign to the site of a suspicious delivery request. Unable to find the right address, he and his partner, Todd Ciotti, were about to turn out of the development when Rutherford decided to try one more street.
As Ciotti ducked in the back of the car with his radio, Rutherford got out with the pizza bag.
Ciotti later testified that the operation was hastily organized and that he and Rutherford were not properly prepared. Newport News Police Chief Jay Carey was forced to step down on May 27, and seven other officers were demoted or otherwise reprimanded for their part in the botched operation.
Carey's forced resignation followed an investigation conducted by an independent panel appointed by Gov. George F. Allen and an internal police investigation that determined the sting operation should not have been conducted.
The trial will continue today.
KEYWORDS: TRIAL MURDER NEWPORT NEWS POLICE DEPARTMENT
by CNB