THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 22, 1994 TAG: 9409220426
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 116 lines
The witnesses could not agree on the details of murderer Todd Moore's violent life.
Did he really beat up a friend's aunt for stealing drugs, or was the victim the aunt's neighbor?
Did he threaten to kill a witness' mother while awaiting sentencing Monday, or was it just a misunderstanding in the courthouse lockup?
Did he brag about killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend in New York, telling his sister, ``I murdered a girl. What makes you think I won't do it again?'' Or was the shooting just an accident?
Did he really fire the shots in 1992 that killed a Peninsula drug dealer who owed him money, or did he only order the man's execution, then stick around to watch it happen?
For three days this week, a parade of witnesses told of such chilling encounters with Moore - of guns shoved into their mouths or held against their temples, of contract killings, of a 13-year-old boy shot off his bicycle by accident.
The details didn't always jibe, but one thing all 30 witnesses agreed on: Todd Moore has crammed a lot of violence into 21 years.
Now, U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson must decide if Moore will become the first man in modern times to get the death penalty in Norfolk's federal court.
On Wednesday, after the last witness testified, Jackson heard arguments for and against Moore's execution.
Moore, a confessed drug dealer, pleaded guilty in June to capital murder. He admitted ordering the 1992 killing of drug dealer Antwan ``A.J.'' Mathis, 19, in Hampton, but denied actually shooting Mathis. Another witness says Moore pulled the trigger.
Friends said Moore killed Mathis over a drug debt. Later, Moore reportedly told one friend, ``Now everybody's paying,'' meaning he had made an example of Mathis and now no one owed him money.
Moore is also charged with shooting his ex-girlfriend in the head in 1990 in New York, and the contract killing of an acquaintance in Newport News in 1991. At first, he agreed to plead guilty to those crimes - manslaughter and second-degree murder - then changed his mind.
In March, Moore escaped from a deputy sheriff at Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth, stole the deputy's gun, jumped into a man's car and ordered him to drive to North Carolina. The man was not hurt, and Moore was caught several hours later, still wearing leg shackles.
Prosecutor Michael R. Smythers said it is time to stop Moore once and for all.
``Society is fed up with this kind of behavior,'' Smythers told the judge. ``The government asks the court to stop this stone-cold murderer. . . Stop him from hurting someone else.''
If Moore is sentenced to life in prison, Smythers argued, ``He would pose a threat to every other inmate and every guard.''
Moore did not speak during the hearing. Often he sat with his head down, staring at his hands in his lap. Sometimes he did not even look at witnesses as they testified.
His attorney, Charles R. Burke, asked the judge to spare Moore's life because he cooperated with police and prosecutors in New York after he was caught.
Burke also asked Jackson to remember that ``Todd Moore is also a human being'' who grew up with learning disabilities, was shunned by a number of foster care institutions and never got the kind of structured education he needed.
``Todd Moore is also a victim,'' Burke said. ``He is a victim of where he has lived and where he has grown up.''
At the sentencing hearing, friends and acquaintances painted a vivid portrait of Moore as a wild man who would do anything to make others respect him. Among the incidents they recounted:
In 1990, after shooting his ex-girlfriend in the head and claiming it was an accident, Moore was released by police. As he left the police station, he told a friend, ``They let a stone-cold murderer go.'' He told another friend that he killed the woman because she was pregnant by another man.
In 1991, he shot a Richmond man who had messed with his brother's drugs.
In 1992, he shoved a gun into a neighbor's mouth when the man refused to buy a car for Moore. ``I'll kill your ass,'' Moore said, then threatened to murder the man's girlfriend and mother, too. The neighbor agreed to buy the car.
Later in 1992, Moore put a gun to the head of a drug dealer who wanted to stop working for him. ``I should shoot you in the face,'' Moore said. Then, he said he was joking.
Also in 1992, he tried to shoot a rival in Newport News, but wound up shooting a 13-year-old boy passing on a bicycle, on his way to a basketball game. The boy nearly died. Moore was never charged.
While being held in New York's Riker's Island jail, he called a friend and asked the man to kill someone who was snitching on him. The friend refused.
Although no one was killed or badly hurt in Moore's escape from Maryview, three men have mental or physical scars.
The deputy sheriff is being treated for eye problems. Moore punched him in the face. A bystander, whom Moore threatened with the gun, is in psychological therapy. And the driver Moore held at gunpoint for several hours and forced to drive to North Carolina is also in therapy.
``It's hard to go out in public anymore,'' said the man, a former bar bouncer who trembled as he testified. ``Now, you don't know what's going to happen when you go out. You're in a public place, a hospital, and look what happened there.''
On Monday, in a detention cell in federal court, Moore reportedly threatened a witness' mother. Three inmates testified that they heard the threat. One said he didn't. Moore reportedly said of the witness, ``Watch what happens to his mother.''
Smythers argued that this threat demonstrates why Moore deserves the death penalty.
``This defendant does not stop,'' Smythers said. ``He just keeps on going, and he's doing it even this week.''
The judge did not say when he will sentence Moore, but indicated it might be several weeks from now.
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL SHOOTING CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT U.S. FEDERAL COURT by CNB