Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993 TAG: 9302230143
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
ZELENAK GETS LIFE IN CROCKETT SLAYING
Katina Zelenak was sentenced to life plus two years in prison Monday for the June 1992 shooting death of Lorna Raines Crockett.A jury was scheduled to hear evidence in the case today, but Zelenak accepted a plea agreement offered by prosecutors.
Zelenak, 20, of Christiansburg, pleaded no contest to charges of first-degree murder and robbery.
Zelenak, who has said her two male co-defendants shot Crockett, had been charged in the case as a "principal in the second degree," Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith said - meaning that even if she did not pull a trigger or rob Crockett, she aided and abetted in the commission of the crimes.
Zelenak was given 20 years in prison for the robbery conviction, to be served at the same time as the life sentence. Zelenak also pleaded no contest to using a firearm in commission of a murder and received a two-year prison sentence.
An abduction charge was dismissed. Keith said the charge was dropped because it was not needed to get the first-degree murder conviction once she had pleaded no contest to robbery.
Zelenak will be eligible for parole in about 15 years, prosecutors said.
Authorities say Crockett, the manager of a shoe store in Christiansburg, was abducted after making a night deposit at the Hills Plaza branch of the First National Bank of Christiansburg.
Her purse was taken and she was shot twice in the head with a .32 caliber handgun. Her body was found June 2 on Falling Branch Road, across the street from the shoe store.
Crockett, 32, of Pulaski County was married and the mother of three boys.
Last week, a jury found Zelenak guilty of attempted robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and using a firearm to commit attempted robbery. Those charges came from the June 2 attempted holdup of a Domino's Pizza manager who was making a night deposit at a Blacksburg bank.
Stuart Arbuckle, 25, foiled the robbery attempt, then followed his assailants and called police on his car's cellular phone. When police stopped the car and Zelenak agreed to a search, they found two guns - including a .32 caliber handgun.
Zelenak, who last week collapsed in tears when a jury found her guilty and recommended 14 years in prison, answered Judge Kenneth Devore's questions in a strong voice Monday afternoon, but began crying when Keith summarized the evidence.
Last week, Zelenak testified she didn't tell her parents Crockett had been shot when she visited them after the shooting because her then-boyfriend, Paul W. Morehead - who stayed outside in the car - had threatened the lives of her and her family.
But prosecutors said Zelenak was the willing "wheel man" in the crimes and had lied to police too many times to be believed now.
Zelenak has testified that she was at the Hills Plaza parking lot with Morehead and William Ray Smith Jr. on June 1 to stake out the way Hills Department Store employees made their night deposits. Then the trio was going to Blacksburg to rob Arbuckle, she said.
After seeing that Hills had two employees making the deposit, the men decided that holding them up was too risky, Zelenak has said. Then Crockett drove up.
In statements to police and in testimony from the witness stand, Zelenak has said Smith jumped from her car and ran toward Crockett, forcing her into her car.
Zelenak said she tried to leave her car, but Morehead pulled his gun, jerked her back in and had a tight grip on her arm. Zelenak said Morehead took the car keys from her and left the car. After she heard one shot, she said, Morehead returned to the car and said he had shot Crockett. She heard another shot, then Smith came back to the car, Zelenak testified.
"If there had been any way that I could have saved that lady's life, I would have," Zelenak said from the stand last week.
Smith, 19, is scheduled to be tried March 16. Morehead, 21, is scheduled for trial April 13.