Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1990 TAG: 9005300263
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: TAZEWELL LENGTH: Medium
A key witness in the reindictment of Samuel S. Ealy apparently had implicated several others, including himself, in the deaths of three members of a Pocahontas family. Ealy's attorneys said the prosecution had failed to tell them that the defendant's half-brother, 16-year-old Brian Burnopp, had given conflicting versions of the crimes.
And Tazewell County Commonwealth's Attorney Thomas Bowen, called by the defense, said law enforcement officials never told him that Burnopp had mentioned anyone besides Ealy being involved in the April 16, 1989, shotgun slayings. Robert and Una Mae Davis and the woman's 14-year old son, Robert Hopewell, were killed at their Pocahontas home.
"I had a difficult time believing it, and I was very surprised when I heard it . . . that I hadn't been told that," Bowen said, "because I felt those statements had to be disclosed to the defense."
Defense attorneys Thomas Scott and Marty Large want the case dismissed because of misconduct by law enforcement authorities. Circuit Judge Donald Mullins will hear final arguments today.
Bowen said he just learned of the allegations Friday, when Scott called him. It was then that Bowen said he learned that Burnopp had given four or five mutually inconsistent accounts about the killings and who was involved, during questioning July 28 from shortly after midnight until about 6 a.m.
Bowen said Sheriff W.E. Osborne, when asked specifically about the different versions, replied, "Are you sure you want me to tell you?"
Chuck Ruble, an investigator with the sheriff's office, testified that he thought Osborne had told Bowen. State Police Special Agent Cecil Wyatt said he heard only part of what Burnopp said, but did hear him mention one other person beside Ealy. Wyatt said he did not know why Bowen had not been notified.
Osborne testified that he thought he had mentioned the varying accounts to Bowen. He said Burnopp, at the time he gave them his statement, was drunk, rambling and telling stories that made no sense. It was the following afternoon when he gave a coherent statement to Wyatt, one that Osborne said incriminated Ealy.
At that time, Ealy had been charged April 21, 1989, with the killings and the charges were nolle prossed May 18, 1989. They were reinstituted after Burnopp's statement to authorities.
Burnopp testified that he did not remember anything he had told authorities during the July 28 interrogation.
Rick Perdue, charged May 18 with helping plan the killings, said he, too, has given several accounts of the crime. He now says the true one is that Ealy told him of plans to rob Charles Gilmore, a former Pocahontas mayor sentenced last month to 11 years in prison on federal drug charges. Perdue says that he warned Gilmore and told Ealy that Robert Davis, who worked for Gilmore, had the drug money at his house.
Perdue also said Gilmore told him to tell his attorney that he saw Gilmore give Davis an attache case presumably containing drug money. Perdue said he had not seen that, but told Ealy he had.
by CNB