ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602160057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHATHAM
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
Kirby DeHart took the stand in his own defense during his retrial for murder Thursday - a move that shook emotions in a crowded Pittsylvania County courtroom.
DeHart is charged with the 1991 murder of 81-year-old widow Effie Rakes of Franklin County. He was convicted of the killing in 1992, along with two related charges.
The convictions were overturned in 1994 by the state Court of Appeals because of a question about the impartiality of a woman in the required pool of 20 potential jurors.
The woman did not sit on the jury that convicted DeHart, but the appeals court ordered a new trial nevertheless.
The retrial started Wednesday and closely followed the facts of his first trial until DeHart testified.
He didn't testify in 1992, so when he took the stand Thursday, not a creak could be heard - except for occasional gasps and jeers from Rakes' family.
DeHart said he didn't kill Rakes. "I'd give up my own life to save hers."
He explained why his fingerprints were found on a Budweiser beer can inside Rakes' Shooting Creek home and on the outside of a bedroom window.
The beer can was found inside the room of Rakes' invalid daughter, Gerene, then 55. Prosecutors claim DeHart killed Effie Rakes after she caught him attempting to molest her daughter.
However, DeHart pointed a finger at an acquaintance, Durrell Whitlock, whom he said he met near Rakes' home on the morning of June 6, 1991.
DeHart said the beer found in Rakes' house was one he gave to Whitlock that morning.
Rakes was slain late June 6 or early June 7.
Whitlock committed suicide about three months after the killing, according to testimony. Investigators do not believe he had anything to do with Rakes' death. His fingerprints were not found on the beer can.
DeHart's testimony enraged Whitlock's mother, Louise, who was in the courtroom. She confronted DeHart when the trial adjourned for the day, yelling at him while being restrained by sheriff's deputies.
DeHart, who grew up in a house next to Rakes', said he must have left his fingerprint on the window when he dropped by the house in the spring of 1991.
When no one answered the door at the Rakes' home that day, DeHart said he walked around the side of the house "to take a leak.'' He said he doesn't remember if he actually touched the window.
"Mr. DeHart, surely you didn't take a leak on the window, did you?'' prosecutor Ben Gardner asked.
Many of DeHart's answers to cross-examination were vague, but he continued to insist that he's innocent.
When asked why he didn't tell investigators these things five years ago, DeHart said, "I didn't think about it."
The prosecution added its own new wrinkle to the case.
Warren "Mickey" Cooper, an inmate in a federal prison in Atlanta, testified against DeHart on Thursday.
Cooper said he was fishing with DeHart in the Franklin County mountains a few months after Rakes' murder.
Cooper testified that DeHart said that "he'd killed Mrs. Rakes. He said he was sorry he done it. He said he was having trouble sleeping because of it.''.
Cooper, who is serving a life sentence without parole on drug convictions, admitted he hopes his testimony against DeHart will in some way help to reduce his prison time.
Said DeHart: "I've never been fishing with Mickey Cooper in my life."
He also said he never considered Cooper a friend and doesn't know him very well.
But when asked by Gardner if he knew Cooper's wife, DeHart blurted out her name before the prosecutor could.
DeHart's retrial will continue today.
It is being held in Pittsylvania County because of publicity in Franklin County about the case.
DeHart, 34, was sentenced to 27 years in prison in 1992.
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