Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991 TAG: 9102220562
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
"I was scared, knowing what Tunney had done to me with knives, clubs and guns," the 54-year-old Bedford man said. Dooley, charged with murdering Tunney McKinney Dooley, told jurors he was acting in self-defense when he fired a .22-caliber rifle into his brother's chestJune 3. Earl Dooley's testimony came during the second day of his trial.
Occasionally wiping his eyes with a red bandana, Earl Dooley described a long history of drunken outbursts by his older brother.
In 1966, Tunney Dooley got drunk at a house party up on Taylors Mountain, his brother recalled. Earl Dooley was sitting on the porch when Tunney approached him with a shotgun, he said.
Earl said Tunney then yelled: "If you come off that ------- porch, I'm going to kill you. And if you don't, I'm going to kill you."
As Earl rose from his chair, a blast whizzed through the porch screen and nicked his leg, he said.
The pair started scuffling, Earl Dooley said, when Tunney picked up an ax. Tunney Dooley swung the ax at him, nearly chopping off his arm, Earl Dooley testified.
Dooley lifted his shirtsleeve Wednesday to show jurors a scar on his arm.
Another time, Tunney Dooley shot him in the hip during a fight, Earl Dooley said. Still other times, he said, his older brother came at him with a knife and chased him with a baseball bat.
Most of those times, Dooley said, his brother had been drinking.
The night of his death, Tunney Dooley had been drinking as well. A hospital test showed a blood-alcohol level of .29 percent - nearly three times the legal limit for drunken driving.
When Tunney arrived at Earl Dooley's apartment that night, Earl Dooley was showing old photographs to Tunney's daughter, Barbara Overstreet, Dooley testified. He was also showing her his rifle, which she was considering borrowing for a hunting trip, he said.
Tunney Dooley showed up mad because his beer had disappeared from his truck, parked outside, Earl Dooley said.
"He kept raving and cursing," Dooley testified. When Dooley asked his brother to calm down, Tunney Dooley told him to mind his own business and threatened to cut his head off, Earl Dooley said.
The older brother reached for the knife in his pocket so Earl Dooley backed up and grabbed the rifle, Dooley said.
"I was scared," he said. "I pulled that trigger with no intention of killing nobody. I was scared."
During cross-examination, Bedford prosecutor James Updike questioned Dooley's claim that he was afraid of his brother.
After all those years of violence, why would he get near Tunney Dooley in the first place, Updike asked. "That'd kinda make any brotherly love grow thin, wouldn't it?"
Anyway, Updike asked, why would someone with a rifle be afraid of a man bearing a small pocketknife - which was found with the blade closed?
Dooley responded by insisting that the blade had been open, that he could not reach far enough for the phone to call for help, and that a knife could kill just as powerfully as any other weapon.
Updike has alleged that Earl Dooley actually planned to kill his brother several days earlier and had even threatened to get him.
Defense attorneys Webster Hogeland and Steve Grant left jurors with the suggestion that Tunney Dooley may have wanted to come visit his brother with more than a knife.
Earl Dooley's neighbor - who Tunney had stopped by to see before going to Earl's apartment - testified that Tunney Dooley made a request before he left.
He pulled out his wallet and offered Arthur "Buddy" Boyer $200 to borrow a gun before he went to see his brother, Boyer told the jury.
Boyer, who said he didn't tell authorities about Tunney's request because they never asked, did not have a gun, he said.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin today.
by CNB