STATE RESTS IN POSTMASTER SLAYINGO

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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 20, 1993                   TAG: 9303200326
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
STATE RESTS IN POSTMASTER SLAYINGO
After spending all week assembling circumstantial evidence against a drifter accused of killing a Wythe County postmaster, federal prosecutors rested their case Friday against Jimmy Lawrence Nance.
Jurors will begin deliberations when the trial resumes Monday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.
Prosecutors say Nance, 42, slashed the throat of Donna Stevenson at the Crockett post office last September because he was broke and knew she carried lots of cash.
Stevenson's purse was missing when her body was found on the post office floor the afternoon of last Sept. 18.
Lacking an eyewitness, a murder weapon or a confession, prosecutors called nearly 50 witnesses and introduced 108 pieces of evidence in presenting what Judge James Turk called a "highly circumstantial case."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Eckert told the jury Tuesday that the evidence will show that Nance had both motive and opportunity to kill Stevenson, who at 49 had worked at the small post office for more than 20 years.
Witnesses testified that Nance had been hanging around the post office the day Stevenson was killed, and that he had earlier remarked that she carried a lot of money "for a country woman."
When police caught up with Nance five hours after the body was found, they found small bloodstains on his shoes, clothing and cap.
An expert witness who conducted DNA testing for the government said the small amount of samples prevented a direct match to the victim's blood. But he narrowed it down to 11 percent of the caucasian population, including Stevenson.
Defense attorneys Jonathan Apgar and Deborah Caldwell-Bono, however, contend that figure is closer to 25 percent. DNA testing also matched Nance's sweat to that found in the headband of a blood-stained baseball cap.
And in the car that Nance was driving, police found photographs of Stevenson's nieces - pictures that she always carried with her in her purse.
Nance did not testify. Instead, his attorneys called witnesses to say he did not need money as desperately as prosecutors suggested. His defense is also focusing on a clump of hair found at the crime scene that did not belong to Nance.
During questioning by police, Nance said he was in North Carolina for much of the day of the killing. But his alibi was weakened when someone remembered seeing him sitting in a Wythe County restaurant, working on a newspaper crossword puzzle. Nance's fingerprints were later found on the puzzle.
Nance - a drifter who peddled furniture from the back of a truck - met Stevenson two months before the killing when he sold her a bedroom suite. Witnesses said he seemed impressed when she pulled $1,300 from her purse to pay for the furniture in cash.
Stevenson's husband, Clyde, testified Friday that his wife always liked to have lots of cash handy - perhaps because she had grown up poor.
"I've never seen a wallet stuffed so full of cash and receipts in my life." he said. "I used to laugh about it."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB