ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997 TAG: 9704110075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A jail inmate quoted Jamie Raymond as saying she should have cut the victim's tongue out, too.
Jamie Raymond admitted going to the home of a halfway house director one evening last June intending to kill him because he had lured her into prostitution, a detective and a jail inmate testified Thursday.
Detective Don Smith told jurors during the second day of Raymond's capital murder trial that she had blurted out her plan in a police car.
``Jamie said, `I went there to kill him. I did not know there was money in the briefcase,''' Smith testified.
Raymond, 20, is accused of killing and robbing Ernie James on June 25. Her husband, Jeremy Raymond, was convicted last month of first-degree murder and burglary in the death of James, a former businessman and part-time college professor who ran a facility for paroled criminals.
Jail inmate Sandy Wealthy also testified that Raymond admitted killing James. She said Raymond told her that ``she was glad he was dead. She said, `I should have cut his tongue out, too.'''
But a tearful Raymond, who testified briefly with the jury out of the courtroom, told Circuit Judge Dennis Hupp that a few days after James' slaying, she burned papers from the briefcase she and her husband had taken from the victim's house.
The papers included details of her sexual relationship with James and lists of current and past prostitutes, she said.
``I destroyed the evidence because I was scared my husband would realize everything I was doing,'' she said. ``I was afraid he would kill me.''
In opening arguments Wednesday, defense attorney Walter Green told jurors that Jeremy Raymond had killed James in a jealous rage over his wife's involvement with him. He said Jamie Raymond was powerless to stop her husband's attack.
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