THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408260596
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Dwayne Markee Reid bobbed nervously and stared out the courtroom window as the clerk read the charges against him.
Capital murder. Armed robbery. Using a firearm to commit a felony.
``Do you fully understand the charges against you?'' the judge asked, looking down at Reid from his elevated bench across the room. Reid snapped to attention.
``Yes, sir,'' he said firmly.
Reid is just 17. But he understands.
Thursday was the start of his second murder trial in less than three years.
His first was in 1992, when he was convicted of robbing and killing a man with a group of friends testing a new gun - a juvenile conviction that was later reduced to armed robbery. He was sent to a learning center for courses in anger control and respect for others, then released five months later.
He was 14.
Now Reid, of Suffolk, is accused of shooting 32-year-old Thomas Runyon, also of Suffolk, in the head while selling him a fake $20 rock of crack cocaine. Runyon was killed seven months after Reid's release on his first conviction. Reid was 16.
The two killings are similar: same Suffolk neighborhood, same type of gun, same youthful, fresh-faced suspect.
But Reid's latest trial is markedly different.
This time he is being tried in Circuit Court as an adult. If convicted, he could be sentenced to die.
Prosecutors presented their case Thursday. Witnesses included Runyon's cousin, who drove with him that night to Van Buren Street in the Tynes Park section; police officers who found the body, and the doctor who performed the autopsy.
And prosecutors offered one witness, Jeanette Riddick, who said she was on the street that early August morning last year and saw Reid shoot Runyon in the right temple with a silver-plated pistol.
``He just turned, then fired,'' she testified softly.
Runyon's cousin, Joseph Mehalko, testified that Runyon asked for a ride that morning to Tynes Park, one of Suffolk's notorious drug markets. He said he didn't know why until he heard Runyon ask some teenagers on the street for $20 worth of crack.
While the transaction was taking place, several of the youths began reaching into Mehalko's truck to steal tools and $60 in Runyon's lap, Mehalko said. Then one of them walked away, turned and fired a .22-caliber slug into Runyon's head.
Several witnesses told police that Reid was the trigger man, but only Riddick would say so in court.
A grand jury indicted Reid last year on a capital-murder charge, allowed by state law if a murder is committed during a robbery or a drug transaction.
Reid's attorney, Timothy Miller, tried to have the charge reduced to first-degree murder because the cocaine used was fake and because no one threatened Runyon before stealing his money.
``At best . . . it was a flimflam,'' Miller said.
But Judge Westbrook J. Parker ruled there was enough evidence to show that the incident was an armed robbery, not a simple larceny.
Reid's attorneys are scheduled to present their case today.
Prosecutors said they have not decided whether to seek a death sentence if Reid is convicted.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING TRIAL by CNB