Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 16, 1992 TAG: 9201160340
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
JURY TO WEIGH SELF-DEFENSE PLEA
A Roanoke jury will be asked today to decide whether 22-year-old Troy Pleasant killed a man to protect his life, or to protect his drug business.In opening arguments Wednesday to a jury in Roanoke Circuit Court, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wanda DeWease said an argument over a drug deal led Pleasant to kill Richard Allen Whorley.
But defense attorneys Al McLean and Ray Ferris maintain that Pleasant acted in self-defense.
Whorley, 35, was shot the night of Aug. 21 on Clifton Street Northwest. He managed to drive his car as far as Patterson Avenue before crashing into the front porch of a home. A short time later, he died at Roanoke Memorial Hospital from a gunshot wound to the chest, DeWease said.
For several weeks the case went unsolved, with police uncertain even of where the shooting had happened. Then, in September, an inmate at the Roanoke City Jail volunteered information about the case.
The inmate, who is expected to testify today, told authorities that Pleasant admitted to him that he shot Whorley when the man tried to drive off without paying for his drugs, DeWease said.
McLean told the jury that Pleasant admits to firing the shot that killed Whorley. But, he said, "We will show that there were two guns, and that Troy Pleasant fired in self-defense."
Pleasant's trial is scheduled to resume today, with the jury expected to begin deliberations by the afternoon.
The trial started Tuesday with an unusual objection by Ferris to a nearly all-white jury impaneled to hear the case. Pleasant is black.
In objecting to a jury of 11 whites and one black, Ferris noted that in a pool of 20 prospective jurors, only two were black - a representation that did not reflect Roanoke's population, which is about 25 percent black.
"It is not a representative sample of the community and it is not a jury of Troy Pleasant's peers," he said.
Whorley, who worked in the pressroom of the Roanoke Times & World-News, also was black.
But Ferris stopped short of accusing anyone of keeping blacks off the jury.
Potential jurors are chosen at random by computer, and one black was excused after she said her knowledge of the case would affect her ability to decide it impartially.
Judge Clifford Weckstein denied Ferris' motion to have a new jury selected. "The nature of random jury selection is such that sometimes, all the numbers will come down in an unexpected manner," he said.
Keywords:
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