ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230021
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: MIKE MATHER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
It has been more than a decade since homicide Detective Steve Dunn pulled knee-high rubber boots over dress shoes and trudged into a muddy, trash-strewn field to look for the body.
On an overcast, rainy morning in February 1985, he saw the beginnings of a murder case that would, over time, pit his duties against the wishes of the pope, a celebrity nun and the Italian government.
The murder victim was Helen Schartner; the killer, Joseph O'Dell III, who has captivated legal scholars, death-penalty opponents and conspiracy mongers perusing the Internet.
O'Dell was to be executed last Wednesday, and Dunn was to be a state witness. The condemned man is the only killer Dunn has sent to death row in his 25 years of police work.
But the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution Tuesday to consider whether the jury properly decided O'Dell's punishment.
Although the stay is not about O'Dell's guilt or innocence, many of the inmate's supporters said they will use the reprieve to try to prove police nabbed the wrong man.
But after weathering 11 years of second-guessing that has spread around the globe, Dunn and the detectives who stood in the mud that day remain steadfastly convinced of O'Dell's guilt. In September, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond unanimously agreed.
``All the evidence, although circumstantial, points to the guilt of Joseph O'Dell,'' Dunn said. ``I stand by my investigation. I stand by my evidence. The lopsided coverage on this has been extremely frustrating. There is no doubt in my mind Joe O'Dell is guilty of this crime.''
Evidence against O'Dell
It is a crime that still haunts Dunn. He recalls the details as if the case were fresh from last night's shift.
He remembers most the bleakness of the crime scene. Schartner's fashionable clothes, once carefully pressed, were disheveled and twisted. Her legs were spread; on the ground by her ankles, Dunn saw scuff marks from the killer's shoes that implied a sexual attack.
Her head was battered and bloody. Her skull bore a tell-tale impression from a revolver's frame.
``It was very upsetting, to say the least,'' Dunn said.
But nothing pointed to the killer, until a Norfolk woman told Dunn about her boyfriend.
The boyfriend was O'Dell, a longtime scofflaw with an extensive history of violent felonies who had been in the same country-western bar the same night as Schartner. In the woman's Norfolk home were the muddy, bloody clothes O'Dell had ditched after the attack.
The next day, Dunn found O'Dell's car and peered inside. The passenger seat was covered with fresh blood that a laboratory would match to the victim, using the best science available in 1985. Blood on O'Dell's clothing also was consistent with Schartner's.
Dunn plucked O'Dell from bed one night and arrested him.
O'Dell said he vomited the blood onto his clothes, but veered from that explanation when Dunn's evidence contradicted him. Then, O'Dell said he had been in a fight. But he could never explain the blood that had dripped from his car's passenger-side headrest onto the heap of trash piled on the floor.
O'Dell fired his attorney and represented himself in court. He was convicted and sentenced to die during what was then the longest and costliest criminal trial in the city's history.
In the 10 years O'Dell has been on death row, the ranks of his supporters have swelled to include a Boston law student who later married the inmate; ``Dead Man Walking'' author Sister Helen Prejean; the Italian government, which greeted the stay with cheers last week; and Pope John Paul II.
All of them, Virginia Beach detectives and prosecutors said, have been duped by O'Dell's use of selective evidence and half-truths to denounce his conviction.
``Anyone can attack my case, my evidence, and I fully expect that to happen,'' Dunn said. ``What irritates me is that everyone takes the word of his defense team, which includes a person O'Dell is romantically involved with, but no one has ever bothered to talk to me, or to put in all of the evidence.
``The articles that have been printed have never addressed the other evidence, like O'Dell's lies, the quantity of blood in his car he could never explain. If you are going to have a debate and use the newspaper, the Internet, the pope - then let's put all of the evidence on the table.''
Seeking justice
Dunn is a soft-spoken detective who has made his career in investigations. He was among the first detectives assigned to a precinct when the department began experimenting with that idea. He first joined the homicide unit in the mid-80s, and left three years later to work in the special investigative division, where he stayed seven years.
After that, he was assigned to a Federal Bureau of Investigation task force for nearly three years. In 1994, he rejoined the homicide unit.
Dunn has never witnessed an execution, and he wrestles with his personal views on the death penalty. He believes executions should be reserved for the vilest of killers. In Dunn's mind, O'Dell qualifies.
``Joe O'Dell is the most dangerous person, and the most dangerous type of person, that I have ever encountered in my career,'' the detective said. ``He is a stranger-predator. The system failed.''
O'Dell was free from a 99-year suspended sentence for attacking and raping a Florida woman when he killed Schartner, Dunn said. The detective said O'Dell learned from the mistake of allowing witnesses to live, and that's why he killed Schartner.
``I believe he learned this because other people testified against him'' in previous trials, Dunn said. ``Mr. O'Dell has earned the right to die because he, or the system, can't be trusted to ensure there will never be a possibility for him to be allowed back on the street. I'm not saying we all shouldn't pray for Mr. O'Dell as a human being, but to have everyone jump on the bandwagon, my question to them is, even if they believe O'Dell didn't commit the crime, what are they saying to the victim's family?
``People should not only pray for Mr. O'Dell's soul, but pray for the victim's, and not let them be forgotten in all this hoopla and media debate.''
Dunn said that if O'Dell's death sentence is upheld, he again will plan to witness the execution. ``I will go to see justice carried out and to try to make sure the victim's family is not overlooked and not forgotten,'' he said.
LENGTH: Long : 120 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Steve Dunn was a lead detective in the 1985 caseby CNBthat sent Joseph O'Dell to death row. A dark green Camaro in the
back is O'Dell's car, which the police took as evidence. The
passenger seat inside the car was covered with fresh blood when
discovered.