ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997 TAG: 9703270042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MARION
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER THE ROANOKE TIMES
Anna Anderson of Marion was robbed, raped and strangled or smothered, police said.
A Smyth County laborer has been indicted twice for capital murder in a retired teacher's death last September.
A grand jury returned the two indictments Tuesday against Harold Davis, 23, who also faces charges of rape, burglary and robbery.
Also indicted in connection with the killing was 17-year-old Joshua Widener. He faces charges of murder, robbery, burglary and rape.
Commonwealth's Attorney Roy Evans Jr. said Wednesday that he thought there was evidence to support both capital-murder indictments against Davis in the killing of Anna Jean Smith Anderson.
"One is murder in the course of a robbery, and the other is murder in the course of a rape," Evans said. "He would only be subject to one penalty, of course."
No trial dates have been set.
Anderson, 68, was found dead in her Marion home Sept. 4. An autopsy showed she had been strangled or smothered and raped.
Davis was arrested a week later and Widener a day after that.
In separate preliminary hearings Jan. 31, each defendant blamed the other.
Davis, who had been doing some work around Anderson's home, told police that he and Widener planned to break into her house at a time when he thought he had heard her say she would be out of town. He claimed that Widener got in through a kitchen window and emerged with $5 and a jewelry box. He said Widener told him later that Anderson had been home, and that he had tied her up and raped her but left her alive.
Widener's statement to police claimed that Davis was the one who broke into the house, brought out the jewelry box, and told of raping and smothering Anderson.
The jewelry box was recovered near the house.
Traces of DNA found in Anderson's body were consistent with Widener but not Davis. A state prisoner who had been in the Smyth County Jail with Davis testified at the preliminary hearing that Davis had asked him whether someone could be identified by DNA after sexual intercourse if he did not ejaculate.
An earring found in the bedroom showed traces of DNA consistent with Davis. Davis has a pierced ear. Widener does not, nor did the victim.
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