Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 18, 1995 TAG: 9504180137
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On Monday, the fourth day of Pennington's trial, a woman testified in Roanoke County Circuit Court that an acquaintance of Mullins told her that he'd ``walked the dog'' on Mullins.
The witness said that when she asked what he meant, he explained that he had killed Mullins.
The chief police detective in the case scoffed at the testimony, saying she had eliminated everyone except Pennington as a suspect in the killing.
Prosecutors contend that Pennington murdered Mullins because she had ripped him off for at least $20,000 in drug money.
Pennington, who is from Vinton, is serving a 90-month drug sentence. Detectives say Mullins was a drug dealer turned informant. She was found dead around midnight April 14, 1991, at her home on Mount Pleasant Boulevard.
Defense testimony Monday was aimed at shifting suspicions to two men: her husband, Jack Mullins of Roanoke; and an acquaintance, Gary Lynn Smith, who lived in Franklin County at the time of the killing.
Linda Gail Perdue, the sister of Smith's former girlfriend, testified that he admitted killing Mullins.
A few days after Mullins' death, Perdue said, they were talking about somebody who had accidentally been shot. She said she remarked that it would be hard to kill someone, but Smith said ``it wouldn't be nothing to kill nobody.''
Perdue said he then described how he killed Mullins in a doorway at the home. ``He said he knew how tall she was. He went up to the door and knocked and when she said, `Who is it?' he just shot her through the door and left.''
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Leach objected strenuously to Perdue's testimony, mainly because she said she has problems remembering things since a car accident a year or so ago.
At first, testifying out of the presence of the jury, she said Smith simply told her he had ``walked the dog'' on Mullins, but had been coy about what he meant.
But she changed her testimony after defense attorney John Lichtenstein read her part of a statement she had made to a detective. By the time she testified for the jury, she recalled that Smith had described the details of the killing.
Perdue also conceded she didn't like Smith, because she felt he had mistreated her sister.
The detective testified that, when she questioned Smith, he denied having anything to do with the slaying and said Perdue was trying to punish him for his rocky relationship with her sister.
Judge Kenneth Trabue said Perdue's memory lapses made him doubtful about her testimony, but that he would allow it into evidence because of the serious nature of the charges against Pennington.
The defense also tried to cast suspicion on Jack Mullins. Bonnie Sue Mullins' mother testified Monday that about two weeks before the killing, the daughter visited her and said she had been quarreling with him. Seconds later, when he drove up, the daughter said she needed to hide. He came in and asked his mother-in-law to keep a rifle.
The jury is expected to begin considering the case today.
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by CNB