Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 26, 1991 TAG: 9103260243
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
King had no idea her bigamist husband was going to rob and kill Carolyn Horton Rogers last Oct. 11 as the Mastin Kirkland and Bolling real estate agent showed the Kings a house she had listed in Southwest Roanoke County, defense attorney Vince Lilley said.
Becky King, 37, thought her husband, Danny King, was looking for a house to purchase in the Roanoke Valley, Lilley told the jury of seven men and five women.
In fact, Danny King killed Rogers in a murder-for-hire scheme and almost killed Becky King as well because she was a witness, Lilley told the jury. But he did not elaborate on who paid Danny King to kill her, or on any other details.
Becky King faces two life sentences plus 40 years in prison on charges of murdering and robbing Rogers and forging and passing two of her checks. Danny King, who married King while he was still married to another woman, faces the death penalty for the same charges. His trial is set for June.
Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart told the jury Monday that Becky King either killed Rogers or was an accessory to her murder. On the same day, she passed two of Rogers' checks using a false name and pawned Rogers' $3,000 engagement ring for $50, Burkart said.
King called at least one other real estate agent before she telephoned Rogers the morning of Oct. 11 and arranged for Rogers to show her the house on Foxcroft Circle, Burkart said.
The Kings met Rogers at the house in a van they had stolen in Richmond.
In the unfinished basement of the vacant house, Rogers was brutally and savagely murdered, he said.
Rogers bled to death from a knife wound to the heart. But she also was choked to the point that fingerprints were left on her throat and blood vessels burst in her eyes. She was stomped and beaten, and shoe prints were left on her head. Her ears and finger were bruised from jewelry being ripped from them, Burkart said.
Co-workers who became worried about Rogers found her body in the house and called police. Police found her car at Tanglewood Mall that night.
In the car was a notepad with Rogers' name and telephone number and those of two other real estate agents written on it, Burkart said. A fingerprint on that pad led authorities to search for Becky and Danny King.
The Kings were captured several days after the murder in the stolen van at a rest area in Ohio.
Becky King told the police four different stories about her involvement in Rogers' robbery and death, Burkart said. At one point, she said she did not knowing anything; another time, she said she had been getting a cigarette in the van and came back into the house to find her husband with blood on his hands.
King also told police she drove Rogers' car to Tanglewood Mall, passed her checks and pawned her ring because her husband told her to.
But Lilley went farther.
He said Danny King had threatened to kill his wife and all of her family if she ever told anyone that he had killed Rogers.
Lilley said Danny King was a con man who led Becky King to give him every paycheck she earned for 16 months while she waited for him to be released from prison.
"Danny King is a consummate liar. He is a consummate con man. . . . This man is smooth and he manipulated this lady and he conned her and he was setting her up," Lilley told the jury.
Lilley said there was one issue in the case: What did Becky King know ahead of time, before the robbery and murder occurred?
After King realized that her husband had killed Rogers, Lilley said, King was in such a state of shock and fear that she did everything he told her to do.
Several real estate agents testified Monday, one about receiving telephone calls from a woman who identified herself as Becky Keaton, and others about finding Rogers' body.
Testimony is expected to continue today in the scheduled five-day trial.
Keywords:
ROMUR
by CNB