Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504140028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The trial for Alma Holston is scheduled for May 31 and June 1; jury selection will be May 30.
Holston is charged with stealing instant bingo tickets worth several hundred dollars from a supply room at the Pulaski Elks Lodge in February.
Defense attorney Michael Barbour objected at Thursday's pretrial hearing to possible testimony by an FBI agent on the statistical probability of drawing a certain number of winning tickets from a box of about 2,000.
He said there is a dispute over the number of tickets in the box in question and the number of Holston's winning tickets. The expert would have no firm figures on which to base his calculations, Barbour said.
In any case, it would not prove that Holston could not have drawn whatever number of winning tickets are involved, Barbour added. "Someone generally beats the odds every Saturday by winning the lottery."
"It's not as if we were just saying it's an odds-statistical case," replied Giles County Commonwealth's Attorney James Hartley, appointed last May as special prosecutor. "There's other evidence to go along with that."
Nonetheless, the prosecution has summonsed two experts to tell the jury the odds of drawing eight or nine winning tickets from among 2,000, he told Circuit Judge Colin Gibb. "Now, I couldn't tell you that, but these folks will be able to do that. It's analogous to DNA evidence," he said.
Gibb gave Hartley 10 days to respond in writing to Barbour's motions.
Barbour also objected to admitting to evidence statements alleging previous "bad acts" by Holston, saying it would be speculation, hearsay and prejudicial. "There is more suspicion and opinion alleged that anything else," he said.
In May, the prosecution will try to prove that Holston went into a usually locked room, saying she was going to check it out for a political event, and opened a closet where the bingo tickets were stored.
Hartley will try to prove that she stole the bingo tickets at that time
The tickets come in a box of more than 2,000, all with the same serial number, with about a dozen $100 winners and others of lesser amounts. Five tabs must be peeled off each ticket to determine which is a winner.
Holston is a member of Pulaski Town Council. She has served from 1980 to 1984 and since 1988, and is a local aide to state Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle. After a grand jury indicted her last September, Barbour said Holston fully expected to be found innocent of all charges.
by CNB