THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994 TAG: 9406110344
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940611 LENGTH: NORFOLK
Hill slumped low in his seat when Circuit Judge Alfred W. Whitehurst read the verdict: guilty of first-degree murder in the death of James Harris, robbery, abduction, wearing a mask during a felony and three counts of use of a firearm. He shook his head in disbelief as bailiffs led him back to jail.
{REST} Members of Harris' family, who attended every day of the weeklong trial, softly cried when Whitehurst read the verdict. And when a court clerk asked Harris' mother if she was all right, the elderly woman looked up and smiled.
On May 27, McCray was acquitted of the same charges for the same crime. The jury in that case spent six hours in heated debate before returning with the not-guilty verdict. Hill's jury spent a calmer three-and-a-half hours reaching its decision.
Hill's trial was very similar to McCray's: many of the witnesses were the same, as were the arguments of both the prosecutor and defense lawyer.
But there were significant differences, too. The state's case against McCray was tainted by the suppression of favorable evidence because it was based on the changing and perjured testimony of teenager Larry Edwards, the only witness to identify Hill, McCray and Donald Marcus, a third man, as the gunmen. A mistrial in McCray's case was declared in December when the suppressed evidence was revealed.
In addition, much of the case against McCray was an attempt to prove that Hill killed Harris. Richard Grizzard, the Southampton County commonwealth's attorney appointed special prosecutor for all three cases, then tried linking McCray and Marcus.
Grizzard declined comment after Friday's verdict because Marcus' trial is pending, scheduled for June 15.
``I think there was a strong need by the jury to find someone guilty of the atrocity of this situation,'' said Joseph Lindsey, Hill's lawyer. ``That's a strong motivator, coupled with'' the circumstantial evidence, he said.
The state has centered on Hill from the start. At 6:30 a.m. on the day of the killing, the three went to the Jr. Market on Westminster Avenue where Harris was manager. Hill got into an argument with Harris over the price of orange juice. A witness testified that Hill then pointed at the gun Harris wore at his side and said: ``You think you're bad because you got a gun. I got one bigger than that and I'll come back and blow your ass off.''
About an-hour-and-a-half later, three men dressed in black entered the store and robbed Harris of about $2,700. As they were leaving, one of the men shot Harris point-blank in the head with a sawed-off shotgun.
Grizzard argued that Hill wanted revenge.
``The robbery was complete,'' he said. ``But this was not a murder, this was an execution . . . This man didn't like the way (Harris) was rude to him . . . James had disrespected him.''
After the killing, Larry Edwards, then 12, first identified McCray, then Hill and Marcus as the men dressed in black who cased the store. But Edwards' testimony and statements to police changed frequently during the 20-month course of the case.
This week, they changed again.
During McCray's trial, the boy, now 14, said he first identified McCray to police. This week, he said he first identified Hill and Marcus, not McCray.
``Larry Edwards is like a rock-em-sock-em robot,'' defense lawyer Lindsey said.
``You wind him up and he's all over the board.''
Other evidence focused on Hill. Hill's girlfriend testified that when she mentioned Harris' murder, Hill said the victim ``got what he deserved.''
And Hill's account of his movements the day of the killing were disputed by witnesses.
The killers wore Phantom of the Opera masks, and Hill was seen carrying such a mask two days after the crime. But Lindsey pointed out that the masks worn by the robbers were full face masks while the mask Hill was seen carrying only covered half the face.
Also of importance was a long black umbrella, found at the crime scene, which Grizzard used to link Hill to the murder. Hill's girlfriend, Jo Mae Pointer, has testified that the umbrella was taken from her house. But in a May 1993 statement to police, she said the umbrella ``was a little fold-up umbrella,'' different from the one entered as evidence.
Yet during the trial, Pointer insisted the umbrella found at the store was the one she saw Hill carrying before Harris was killed.
{KEYWORDS} MURDER TRIAL JURY GUILTY VERDICT SHOOTING
by CNB