Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993 TAG: 9302100224
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
COUSIN CHARGED WITH PERJURY
Kenneth "Smiley" Worley has remained loyal to his cousin, Kirby C. DeHart, ever since DeHart was charged with the murder of an 81-year-old Franklin County widow.On the June 1991 morning after DeHart shot and killed Effie Rakes, Worley met him to go fishing.
Even after DeHart was sentenced this past fall to 27 years in prison for second-degree murder, Worley stuck up for his cousin.
Monday night, Worley learned he could have to pay for that blind loyalty when authorities arrested on a charge of perjuring himself in Franklin County Circuit Court.
The charge, a felony that could get Worley 10 years in prison, goes back to Worley's attempt in late November to have the verdict against DeHart thrown out.
Before DeHart's sentencing, Worley came forward with the claim that a juror had told him DeHart would be "going down the road for a long time."
Sentencing had to be delayed while Circuit Judge Samuel Hairston investigated Worley's claim.
"What he's done is, he's attacked the integrity of the system," Franklin County prosecutor Cliff Hapgood said. ". . . You just can't overlook something like that."
During a late-November hearing conducted by Hairston, Worley contradicted himself several times when questioned about an affidavit he signed.
When Hairston called the juror into the room, the juror denied knowing DeHart or making the statement. "Something like that, I would remember," he said. "I'm telling you, it was never said."
Had Worley's claim that a juror had a pretrial bias been proven true, it could have meant a new trial for DeHart.
Instead, it backfired. Hairston refused to set a bond for DeHart, saying he had "tried to circumvent the judicial process."
DeHart has since been transferred to the penitentiary.
Worley was in the Franklin County jail with bail set at $5,000.