Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 5, 1994 TAG: 9403090201
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Robert Freis Staff Writer
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Even though Kelly F. Marshall readily admitted shooting his girlfriend in the head with a shotgun, a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury ruled the crime was committed in the heat of passion.
Marshall, orginally charged with first-degree murder and facing the possibliity of life in prison, should serve 22 years for shooting Tabitha Jo Young Bell instead, the jury said.
Testimony indicated Marshall, 21, and Bell argued bitterly several times at their Spaulding Road residence last May 6.
Bell accused Marshall of neglecting her because he had been staying out late that week fishing on the New River.
The argument escalated when Bell told Marshall she would make his life hell, the defendant testified. If so, Marshall said, he would take her with him.
In a taped confession played in court, Marshall said Bell dared, "Why don't you kill me now?"
Marshall said he responded by removing a .12-guage semi-automatic shotgun from a rack above the sofa, clicking off the safety mechanism and firing a round into Bell's temple.
"She turned and screamed and that's when I shot her," Marshall told police.
The blast killed the 22-year-old Bell instantly and also cost the life of a 7-month-old fetus Marshall had fathered. An autopsy indicated the baby was a girl.
Bell was in the kitchen preparing dinner when she was shot. As she fell, according to testimony, her body knocked open a refrigerator door.
Marshall said he reached across her body and got a beer. But he said he didn't remember other details of the shooting.
"It wasn't me. It was me but not me. I wasn't in my right mind," he testified.
Marshall was sitting in a lawn chair in front of the house when Officer D. J. Trail arrived minutes later.
Trail testified that Marshall, a laborer with an 11th-grade education, stood up, held out his arms and said, "Put the cuffs on me. I did it."
Defense attorney John Hunington told the eight-woman, four-man jury that the case was tragic but "not a whodunit."
Marshall did not plan to kill Bell, but reacted impulsively when they argued by grabbing the gun and shooting her, Hunington said. The act was "a product of passion."
"The murrder would not have occurred but for a loaded shotgun within reach," he said.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Schwab argued that Marshall's actions were premeditated and intentional. "He had the chance to stop. But he didn't," Schwab said.
Schwab asked the jury to find Marshall guilty of first-degree murder, and called for the maximum sentence of life in proison.
Yet after deliberating for about two hours, the jury opted for a second- degree murder conviction, and fined Marshall $50,000.
Marshall, a pale, thin-lipped man who trembled throughout the hearing, will be formally sentenced April 1.
Even though the shotgun fired by Marshall killed both Bell and their unborn daughter, state law does not allow him to be charged with two counts of murder.
by CNB