THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 23, 1994 TAG: 9408230409
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
A Navy witness said he was too frightened to carry out his part of a scheme to kill Roxanne Fricke - lighting firecrackers to mask the sound of gunshots fired into her head.
Gilroy Lamar Brunson testified Monday that he drove away instead on May 13, 1988, but not before he saw Angel Rivera fire the fatal shots as Fricke got into her car outside a Virginia Beach supermarket.
Rivera went free earlier this year because Virginia Beach prosecutors deemed Brunson's testimony too unreliable. But the Navy has called Brunson as its chief witness in the trial of the third figure in the alleged murder-for-hire scheme - Lt. Cmdr. Michael Fricke, husband of the victim.
A former Navy seaman, Brunson worked for Fricke when Fricke was a supply officer at Oceana Naval Air Station. Brunson said Fricke approached him in the Oceana gymnasium one day and asked him whether he knew where he could buy a gun. Brunson agreed to help him.
Brunson said it was at the gym that he introduced Fricke to Rivera - an unemployed welder, Brunson said - and the plan to kill Roxanne Fricke was hatched.
Brunson, who is serving time for federal charges including tax fraud, was granted immunity from prosecution in the slaying. He is the only link between Rivera and Fricke.
The Navy says Fricke ordered his wife killed because she wanted a divorce and would have taken their young son from him. He also had a girlfriend and needed money to get out of debt, prosecutors said - money he ultimately gained from a $100,000 insurance policy he took out on Roxanne Fricke several weeks before her death.
Fricke, 37, faces a possible death penalty if convicted. He would be the first Navy man and the only officer sent to death row since 1984. A 14-member jury panel of senior naval officers is hearing his case at the Norfolk Naval Station as the trial enters its second week.
Few details of Brunson's testimony have remained consistent through the Rivera and Fricke cases. He gave police four different versions of how the payoff for the killing happened and two accounts of how he disposed of evidence.
At first, Brunson told police that Fricke had arranged to pay Rivera one week before the shooting. He said Fricke handed him an envelope at the Oceana gym and told him to take it to Rivera.
But he later said the payment took place in Fricke's office at the supply center. Still later he said it took place at the Officer's Club at the Dam Neck Fleet Combat Training Center.
Finally, Brunson told investigators he saw Fricke pay Rivera somewhere on Holland Road. He said he happened to be driving by at the time.
Asked repeatedly about the discrepancies, Brunson said he changed the story he told police to hedge his bets as he awaited word on whether he would be granted immunity. Now that he has it, he says he is telling the truth.
``I was just limiting my involvement at the time,'' he said.
Brunson, who is being held at an undisclosed federal prison, has been promised a new identification and protection after he completes his prison term in June.
Brunson also testified Monday about the night of the slaying. After Rivera shot Roxanne Fricke, Brunson said, the triggerman reached into her car, took her purse and jumped into a getaway car driven by a man identified only as Mike.
Later, at an apartment rented by Brunson's girlfriend, they looked through Roxanne Fricke's purse and found about $7 in cash, an earring, a driver's license and credit cards.
Rivera, who had covered his face with black shoe polish to hide his identity, removed his bloody coveralls, cleaned himself up and wiped the gun and extra bullets clean, Brunson said.
All the evidence was thrown into the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River, off the Broad Creek Bridge on Interstate 264, Brunson said.
None of the items has been recovered. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Photo
Lt. Cmdr. Michael Fricke is accused of hiring a hit man to kill his
wife, Roxanne, in 1988.
KEYWORDS: MURDER-FOR-HIRE MURDER SHOOTING
TRIAL by CNB