ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703040086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
JURORS WERE SHOWN where the victim had lain, where he was dumped over an embankment and, finally, where he was found.
The jury in a Wythe County murder trial visited two places tied to the death of 17-year-old Ricky Lee Coleman before hearing opening statements in the case Monday.
Eric Dwayne Ball, 20, is the second defendant to be tried in Coleman's death, which happened sometime in January 1996, although even the medical examiner's office could not determine precisely when.
Before a jury could begin deliberations in his trial last November, Jason Dennis Hibbs changed his pleas to guilty of murder and abduction. Ball faces the same charges, and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Keith Blankenship told the jury that he was seeking a first-degree murder conviction.
Testimony at the first trial showed that Coleman had been drinking at Hibbs' home, knocked over a television set and some furniture, was punched in the nose by Hibbs, and went outside to collapse in the yard where he lay for about 5 1/2 hours.
Later that evening, Hibbs, Ball and 18-year-old Erik Wimmer wrapped Coleman in a blanket, loaded him into the trunk of Ball's car, drove several miles to a rural area and dumped him over an embankment, according to testimony. His body was found several days later, and an autopsy showed that he had frozen to death.
Dr. William Massello, deputy chief medical examiner for Western Virginia, testified that he could not pinpoint the time of death because of the body's condition when it was recovered.
Massello said a high level of alcohol consumption contributed to Coleman's death, by expanding his capillaries which normally would have contracted to keep more blood in the vital organs. Coleman's blood alcohol level was .22 percent, which Massello classified as high.
He agreed with defense attorney Jonathon Venzie that, if Coleman had not been consuming alcohol close to the time of his death, the level would have to be still higher earlier and the body's protective responses to cold would have been even more impaired.
Venzie seemed to be trying to show that Coleman could have died before Ball even arrived at the Hibbs house. Another witness, 15-year-old Danny Ray Hibbs Jr., said he tried to rouse Coleman from the yard before he left the Hibbs home, and Coleman was still alive then.
The boy, who is the step-nephew of the earlier defendant, broke into tears several times when he told of Coleman coming to his home in the Max Meadows area with the avowed purpose of getting drunk.
The younger Hibbs said they swiped moonshine liquor from his grandfather's truck, and then went to Jason Hibbs' home after learning that his parents were away.
All three of them were drinking, the boy said. Then Coleman overturned some furniture and the fight happened.
The boy said he had lied on instructions from Jason Hibbs when he told investigators that he had seen Coleman staggering away from the Hibbs home wearing a blanket. "And then I told them the honest-to-God truth," he said, which was that Coleman was still in the yard when he left.
The jury panel visited the home, where Col. Kermit Osborne of the Sheriff's Office pointed out the spot in the yard where he said there would be evidence that Coleman had lain. Then the convoy of jurors and court officials drove another 2.2 miles to the place where Coleman had gone over an embankment. Then, wearing a blaze orange jacket which would show up through the woods, Osborne showed where Coleman's body was found near a stream.
The jurors were not permitted to question Osborne. Circuit Judge Colin Campbell told them they would consider what Osborne pointed out to them in conjunction with evidence during the trial. Library note: The story originally spelled Erik Wimmer's first name Eric. Erik is correct.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines KEYWORDS: NRVMURby CNB