THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 3, 1994 TAG: 9409030475
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Jurors on Friday acquitted a man accused of the drug-related slaying of two men in an Ocean View motel last year.
After an hour and a half of deliberation, the jury found 25-year-old Richard Earl Wilson Jr. not guilty of capital murder, first-degree murder and two counts of use of a firearm.
Wilson, who has been incarcerated since Nov. 3, was to be released from City Jail later Friday, said Pat Dickey, one of Wilson's lawyers.
Wilson was charged with the Oct. 30 slayings of John Whitehead, 24, who was living in the Ocean Shore Inn, and Tracey L. White, 27, of Brooklyn, N.Y.
The bodies of the two men, described in testimony as drug dealers, were found in Whitehead's room by motel employees. White was slumped beside musical instruments while Whitehead was found dead on a bed.
Each man was shot once in the head with a handgun, autopsy records show.
According to prosecutor Ron Batliner, the double slaying resulted from a drug rivalry between Wilson and the victims, who were allegedly infringing on Wilson's territory.
Wilson allegedly was smoking crack cocaine with two married couples on the night of Oct. 29. White entered the room and sold one of the drug users more crack, which they then used, Batliner said.
The heart of the state's case lay in a statement made by prosecution witness Tamika Wright, who told police she woke up on the night of the murder and heard Wilson say, ``Them two . . . got two to the head. They had to go.''
Batliner told the jury: ``This is not a coincidence that someone walks in and says this sort of thing. He had specific knowledge.'' Batliner added that Wilson had easy access to guns and was seen throughout the apartment complex on the night of the murder.
Wilson always maintained his innocence, and his lawyers said someone else killed the two. Co-counsel Larry Shelton pointed out inconsistencies and weaknesses in the state's case, which included:
Wright's testimony differed from what she told police. Where police notes said Wilson admitted shooting the two, Wright did not testify to that.
Wright said she heard Wilson make the statement between 2 and 3 a.m. But another state witness said he saw the victims partying at 4 a.m.
There was no direct evidence linking Wilson to the victims: no fingerprints, eyewitnesses or blood stains.
In addition, the victims ``had plenty of enemies'' with sufficient motive, Shelton said.
One of those enemies possibly even tampered with evidence before police arrived, Shelton argued. Although the bodies were discovered at 10 a.m., no one notified police until noon.
The first people in the apartment remembered that beer cans and other signs of a party were strewn around the room, but police officers and paramedics did not notice any of this, Shelton told the jurors.
In other words, someone hid evidence and possibly rearranged the victims' bodies, Shelton argued.
``The commonwealth wants you to convict a man of a charge for which he could lose his life,'' Shelton argued. ``Use your common sense. . . . Please don't convict an innocent man based on this evidence.''
KEYWORDS: TRIAL MURDER ACQUITTAL COCAINE CRACK by CNB