Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 12, 1994 TAG: 9405120197
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER Note: below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ With their long, dark hair and similar facial features, sisters Deborah Marshall and Lisa Hodges could easily be confused with one another.
That may be inconvenient at times, but on Wednesday it worked out just fine for them.
Marshall, who was accused of distributing crack, was acquitted by a Roanoke jury after Hodges testified that she was the one police saw dealing drugs outside a fast-food restaurant.
"I'm scared, because I don't want the charge," Hodges testified tearfully. "But I can't let [Marshall] take it, because she didn't do it."
Assistant Public Defender Steve Milani argued it was a case of mistaken identity - an easy mistake for an undercover police officer to confuse one sister with the other in the dark and tense environment of a parking lot drug deal.
"Where mystery begins, justice ends, " Milani said, arguing that there were too many unanswered questions in the prosecution's case to find Marshall guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Nagel stuck by his case, accusing the two sisters of building "a nestful of lies" to fool the jury - knowing all along that Hodges would never face charges for her surprising confession.
Nagel noted that Marshall, 25, let her hair grow out for the trial, and that both sisters chose to wear their hair pulled back on Wednesday. "They're trying to pull the wool over your eyes," he told the jury.
A case that Nagel called a "complex lie" was complicated even further by the fact that a convicted accomplice in the drug deal, Tommy Bond, was dating both Marshall and Hodges at the same time, without Marshall's knowledge.
During the daylong trial in Roanoke Circuit Court, officer Daniel Dean testified that he was working undercover last Oct. 7, posing as a drug customer looking for crack.
Bond flagged him down that night near Melrose Park to make a sale, Dean testified. Bond said they would have to find his girlfriend first, because she was carrying the drugs so he wouldn't smoke up the profits.
One phone call and half an hour later, they wound up at a fast-food restaurant in Southeast Roanoke. Dean testified that they were met by another car driven by Marshall, who supplied a $25 rock of crack that he then purchased from Bond.
Bond testified that it was Hodges, not Marshall, who met him that night. "The wrong person's being tried here today," Bond said.
Then it was Hodges' turn to testify. "She didn't do anything; it was me," Hodges told the jury. Marshall testified that she was home all night, looking after her three children.
The hardest part of coming to her sister's defense, Hodges said, was admitting that she was dating Bond on the sly.
"I tried to hide the fact of me and Tommy, because I didn't want to hurt my sister," Hodges, 27, testified.
Although Hodges expressed fears that her testimony might land her in trouble, criminal charges appear unlikely.
After Hodges' testimony, Dean was called back into the courtroom to testify that he had no doubt it was Marshall he saw that night. Nagel said prosecutors would not charge Hodges after she was ruled out as a suspect by the arresting officer.
After the jury deliberated just half an hour, both sisters broke into tears of joy when the verdict was read. Hodges rushed to pay telephone outside the courtroom. "We won!" she excitedly told the person who answered her call.
Outside the courthouse, Marshall and Hodges hugged and said they have put their boyfriend problem behind them.
by CNB