ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 25, 1997 TAG: 9702250126
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
The phone rang about 10 a.m. July 4 at Cepada Wiley's home in Roanoke.
It was his big brother, Sherrond, on the phone. He was at the Embassy Motor Lodge on Melrose Avenue. Wiley, 22, told police later that his brother was "having a little problem with some guy" and wanted him to come.
Wiley went in the bathroom and brushed his teeth. He was in no rush.
The phone rang a second time. His brother again. "When you leaving?" Sherrond asked.
Wiley drove to the motel in his grandmother's car - "I drove right at the speed limit" - and found his brother in the parking lot.
"Give me your gun," his brother said.
Wiley reached in the glove box and grabbed his .380-caliber pistol - which he said he always carried to protect himself.
He didn't ask why Sherrond wanted the gun. He just gave it to him. "He's my older brother."
A man was coming across the parking lot. Sherrond and the man had words.
By now it was clear this was going to be a violent confrontation. Somehow - he claimed he wasn't sure how - Wiley got the gun back from his brother.
His brother and the other man fought hand-to-hand. Wiley says he fired warning shots, but they did no good. He reloaded.
Sherrond's head smashed into a car, spider-webbing the shatterproof windshield. Then he slammed into a plate-glass motel-room window.
The other man was down on the ground, Cepada Wiley said, but he was starting to get up, and he was yelling "I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you."
Wiley fired.
Four bullets slammed into the man - two in his flank, one his neck, one in his back. One bullet lodged in the tip of his tongue.
Jesse Darnell Ferguson Sr., a 22-year-old father of two, was dead.
Seven months later, Cepada Wiley is on trial in Roanoke Circuit Court, and a jury must sort out what happened in that motel parking lot and decide:
Murder or self-defense?
Testimony began Monday, and the case is expected to go to the jury today.
Prosecutors say it's a case of a tense love triangle that turned violent, drew in Cepada Wiley, and then ended in murder.
Wiley, a city of Roanoke employee, had never been in trouble with the law. Defense attorneys say he shot Ferguson - a man he'd never met before - because he believed his life was in danger. They say he had a legal right to defend himself with deadly force.
To prove this, they are trying to put the man he killed on trial.
Defense attorney Alton Prillaman described Ferguson as a 6-foot, 203-pound body builder, a "man of violence" who'd been arrested in the past for threatening Sherrond Wiley over a woman, Kimberly Anita Bonds. The two had been competing over her affections for years, and she'd recently left Ferguson to get back with Sherrond Wiley.
Days before the shooting, Prillaman said, Ferguson had been charged with assaulting Bonds. She and Sherrond Wiley had fled to the motel the night of July 3 to get away from Ferguson, Prillaman said, but Ferguson "stalked" them to the Embassy Lodge. He was there when they woke up the next morning.
Prosecutors say Bonds went outside with Ferguson and tried to talk him into leaving. She told them it was over between them. Sherrond Wiley, meanwhile, called his little brother.
Then, prosecutors say, Ferguson pushed his way into the room. He and Sherrond Wiley fought.
Sherrond Wiley got away and headed downstairs to the parking lot. Then his brother arrived.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Bowers said things could have been different, but the Wiley brothers "brought in a gun." He said Sherrond Wiley could have called the police instead of his brother. "Nobody had to die that day," Bowers said. "Bad choices. Bad decisions."
Bowers tried to undercut Cepada Wiley's self-defense claim by emphasizing that Ferguson was on the ground when he was shot - and was shot in the back.
As Ferguson lay face-down, bleeding, Wiley took the magazine out of the gun and laid the magazine, the gun and his car keys on the trunk of his grandmother's car. He ran into the motel office and said, "Somebody's been shot. Call the police and ambulance."
Less than two hours later, Wiley freely answered questions from Detective S.P. Lukacs. He said he didn't want a lawyer.
Lukacs asked if Wiley knew the dead man's name.
"Uh, Jesse something, I don't know," Wiley said, his voice quavering. "No, I can't say I really do."
He'd known Ferguson and his brother had had a longstanding feud about Bonds. But the only time he'd seen Ferguson was one day when he'd stared Ferguson down across a Burger King: "He told my brother if I looked at him again he was gonna go get his gun and shoot me or something."
The detective asked why he shot Ferguson.
"I was scared that he was gonna get me, and I thought my brother was dead," Wiley said.
The detective pointed out that his brother's injuries weren't serious - cuts and contusions.
"I knew that he was bleeding, you know what I'm saying?" Wiley said. "I was scared of blood. I, I, I'm very afraid of blood."
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