THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 14, 1994 TAG: 9406140323
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOSEPH P. COSCO, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940614 LENGTH: NORFOLK
Moore, 21, is believed to be the first person in the country to plead guilty to murder in connection with a continuing drug enterprise, which was made a federal capital offense in the late 1980s.
{REST} A suspect in a rash of shootings in New York and Hampton Roads, he is only the fourth person to be charged under the new law in Norfolk's federal court.
Moore, who made a dramatic but brief escape while being treated in a Portsmouth hospital in March, pleaded guilty Friday to killing 19-year-old Antwan J. Mathis in Hampton in July 1992. He also pleaded guilty to four drug counts, one count of running a continuing criminal enterprise and one firearms charge.
Arguments for and against the death penalty will be heard at a sentencing phase scheduled to begin Sept. 19 before U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson. Moore and federal prosecutors agreed to have the judge, rather than a jury, pass sentence.
If Jackson imposes the death penalty, it would be a first for the Norfolk federal court in modern times. Earlier this year, a federal jury convicted three drug kingpins of murder, but rejected the death penalty. The three received life sentences without parole.
Defense attorney Charles R. Burke said he hopes he can convince Jackson to spare Moore's life. The lawyer said Moore is borderline mentally retarded, an eighth-grade dropout who can barely write after spending his school years in special education programs.
``I'm hopeful with Mr. Moore's plea of guilty, his acceptance of responsibility for his criminal actions and the fact that he has agreed to cooperate with the government will convince the judge, following a careful weighing of Mr. Moore's deficient background, that he should not be sentenced to death,'' Burke said Monday.
Moore most likely will testify at the drug trial of three co-defendants - Wainsworth Marcellus Hall, Derrick Kelley and Patrick Avent - set to begin today. Four other defendants already pleaded guilty and four others are fugitives.
Prosecutors say Moore's gang distributed more than 20 kilograms of crack in Hampton Roads since Moore moved from New York to Newport News in November 1991.
Moore was arrested in September 1992 in New York, where he was charged with two killings, including that of his pregnant girlfriend.
In February 1993, Moore agreed to plead guilty in state court to manslaughter and second-degree murder in connection with the New York killings. He also pleaded guilty to murdering Mathis, with the understanding that the U.S. Attorney's Office wouldn't seek the death penalty against him. Two days later, Moore called off the plea agreements.
Prosecutors believe Moore was also involved in two other drug slayings in Newport News, as well as four other shootings in New York and Virginia, including the April 22, 1992, wounding of 13-year-old Johnny Woods during a turf-war shootout in Newport News.
Before pleading guilty last week, Moore sought permission to represent himself, even while maintaining that he was borderline mentally retarded. ``The way I look at it I got nothing to lose,'' he told Jackson at a hearing. ``I just feel that if there's a mistake made, I want to make it.''
Jackson denied the request.
{KEYWORDS} MURDER DRUG ARRESTS
by CNB