ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 TAG: 9702110091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
A man who was convicted by a Roanoke County jury of murdering a woman over a drug debt will get a new trial.
The Virginia Court of Appeals overturned the murder conviction of Frank E. Pennington, who is serving an unrelated drug sentence in federal prison.
The murder case has been sent back to Roanoke County Circuit Court for a new trial.
The court's opinion, filed last Tuesday, said the circuit court was wrong to deny a motion by Pennington's lawyer to remove a potential juror, a spokeswoman for the appeals court clerk said.
The motion centered on one woman's responses during jury selection, when attorneys questioned prospective jurors for biases that could lead to their disqualification.
Pennington's lawyer, John Lichtenstein, said he questioned whether the prospective juror could be impartial and whether she understood how to apply the burden of proof.
The woman ultimately was among the 12 jurors to hear the case.
Lichtenstein said he appealed because the court should have removed the juror rather than leave it up to the defense to strike her from the panel.
Assistant Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Leach said he expected to file in circuit court for a new trial date.
Roanoke County police charged Pennington in 1995 with murdering Bonnie Sue Mullins four years earlier.
At the time of his trial, Pennington was serving a 90-month federal drug sentence. He has about one year left to serve in federal prison.
On the murder charge, Pennington was sentenced to 42 years in state prison.
Mullins, 35, who had been described as a drug dealer-turned-informant, was shot in the face on April 14, 1991, as she answered the door of her Mount Pleasant home.
The act was payback for a $20,000 drug debt that Mullins owed Pennington, according to prosecutors.
Pennington's defense focused on a number of other individuals who had a motive and opportunity to kill Mullins, including Mullins' husband.
The five-day trial included the dramatic testimony of Pennington's former girlfriend, Karen Warner. Suffering from AIDS, Warner was wheeled in on a gurney at Pennington's preliminary hearing to testify that Pennington had admitted to her that he had shot Mullins. Warner told a judge she had lied when first questioned by police because she was afraid of Pennington.
She died the day a jury convicted her former boyfriend. Her testimony was preserved on videotape.
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