Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993 TAG: 9309040098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
"It was like when you're lighting a stove," the 32-year-old stock brokerage clerk from New York City described to a jury Friday. "You feel this tremendous heat.
"I can't even describe it - you feel pain all over. You hurt so much," he said. "I felt like my whole body was on fire."
As the soft-spoken Jamaican immigrant testified in a calm, measured tone about his New Year's Day ordeal near Tampa, some among the six-member jury bowed their heads. A lone black woman on the panel wiped a tear from her eye and sniffling could be heard in the packed gallery.
" `I never did anything to anybody,' " Wilson said he cried before he was ignited. " `Why are you doing this to me?' "
Later, Wilson identified defendant Mark Kohut as the assailant he described as "bright eyes." And he identified co-defendant Charles Rourk as the "mean one" who showered him with gasoline from a plastic jug.
While Wilson had earlier identified Kohut from photographs, he identified Rourk in the courtroom for the first time.
Previously when shown Rourk's photographs, he had said he wasn't "100 percent sure."
Wilson's testimony in their attempted murder trial is crucial to salvaging a state case riddled with problems. There is no physical evidence tying Kohut and Rourk to the scene.
An 18-year-old man originally charged, Jeffery Pellett, has admitted lying about the case and said he would lie again to protect himself. And the prosecution's top litigator quit the case Monday in a dispute with his boss.
Defense attorneys took a cautious approach with Wilson on cross-examination.
They pointed out discrepancies in prior statements and noted that he helped authorities make a composite sketch days after the burning that bears little resemblance to the defendants.
Wilson explained he had tried to block the burning from his mind, and that his memory of it has improved steadily in the months since.
If convicted of attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery, Kohut, 27, and Rourk, 33, could face life behind bars. They were arrested six days after the attack when Pellett confessed first to his mother, and then to police.
During his testimony, Wilson - dressed in a gray sport coat and open-collar shirt - rolled up his sleeves to the jury to give them a look at the burns, which cover nearly 40 percent of his body. He told them of the skin grafts he had to repair his wounds.
Under questioning from Assistant State Attorney Eric Myers, Wilson said the ordeal began when he went out to buy a newspaper New Year's morning.
He was visiting a girlfriend for the holiday and they had tickets to the Hall of Fame Bowl football game that day.
But as he pulled his Cadillac over to the newspaper box, he saw a white vehicle pull along side.
"The next thing I felt was a gun to my neck - the person said, `Don't move. . . . Drive.' "
"`You niggers keep coming down here, messing things up,"' Wilson quoted one of the men as saying.
At a remote field, Wilson said, he caught a glimpse of his attackers before they told him to look away.
He said he first felt a wetness on his back and then was showered over his head with gasoline.
He said he heard his white attackers say, "Now you're going to die, nigger."
He was ordered to crouch in the back seat when he heard the click of a lighter and then felt the flames. "The next thing I know I was running. It seemed like I was running for hours."
A farmer heard his screams and hosed him with water. "I was begging to keep the water on," Wilson said. "That's the only time you can feel better. . . . It hurt so bad."
by CNB