
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 5, 1990                   TAG: 9007050088
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

TEEN'S TRIPLE-SLAYING MURDER CONFESSION FOUND UNPROVOKED

Police did not place undue psychological pressure on a teen-ager to get a confession to the slayings of three members of a Henrico County family, a judge has ruled.

However, statements made by police about the death penalty to Stevan E. Rea, 16, were inappropriate, Circuit Judge James E. Kulp said Tuesday.

Rea is charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Larry W. Walker, his wife Emily, and their 17-year-old son Eddie at their home on March 25. He could face the death penalty if convicted. 20.

Christopher M. Palmer, 16, and Jackie Lynn Kulp, 14, not related to Judge Kulp, also were charged. After his arrest, Rea spent 15 minutes vaguely recounting his whereabouts after the slayings when police investigators stopped their interrogation because the teen-ager and his father, Samuel Earl Rea, said he was too tired to continue.

Detective Joseph A. Kyzer turned to the 16-year-old and said, "If you think you're tired now, we'll see how much sleep you get waiting to go to the electric chair."

Rea then asked to talk only to Kyzer, without his father in the room and not on tape.

Rea's lawyers said the statement - which remains sealed - should be suppressed because of undue psychological pressure.

Kulp said the police did not force the youth to confess. "There's no indication the defendant reacted by fear or threats . . . to make the second statement," he said.

by CNB