THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412150440
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
Just one cigarette, Detective Cecil Whitehurst thought as he carefully washed the small ashtray and placed it on the edge of his desk.
It's illegal to smoke in city offices, but Whitehurst was willing to let Willie Leon Irving fire up one of his Newport Lights - if it brought the detective one step closer to solving the Sept. 3, 1993, murder of 32-year-old Robin P. Williams.
Police had found no fingerprints. Their only evidence was DNA material from a single hair that lab experts determined came from a black suspect. They also had DNA evidence from the sexual assault on Williams.
Irving, 30, a smoker, could be their missing link, Whitehurst told himself as the two sat in the police interrogation room.
Irving had asked if he could smoke. When he saw the ashtray, he lit up and took several drags while he gave police a statement. It was the only cigarette he smoked.
But it was enough: The cops had the sample they wanted. In less than a week, a private North Carolina lab matched the DNA from saliva on the cigarette butt to the other samples found at the murder scene. Irving was their man.
On Wednesday, Irving received two life sentences after pleading guilty to one of the most brutal crimes in Chesapeake in recent times. He raped and strangled Williams while the single mother's 3-year-old son was in the apartment.
Chuck Moyer, Williams' brother-in-law, discovered her, partially clothed, in the living room of her apartment in the 700 block of Greentree Circle.
Her nose was bloodied. There were bruises on her face, chest, back and arms and a small stab wound in her upper left back.
Williams' son was trapped inside the apartment with his mother's body for nearly eight hours after the crime. He had tried unsuccessfully to wake his mother, then covered part of her body with a blanket.
When Moyer showed up at the apartment, he couldn't get in, because the boy had locked the door to keep the ``bad man'' from coming back.
When an apartment manager opened the door, the boy was inside looking at a book.
At first, police had no suspects. All they knew was they were looking for a black male.
Police questioned people throughout the apartment complex, including Irving, whose mother lives there. They thought Irving's behavior was suspicious. And there were discrepancies in accounts of his whereabouts. Witnesses said they saw him at the apartment complex at the time of the murder. Irving was living in Richmond and staying at his mother's apartment when he visited his girlfriend in Chesapeake.
Police eventually asked Irving to come to headquarters to give a statement. He agreed.
Police had no case against Irving. But if they could get a search warrant, they could take a blood sample for a DNA test that could link him to the crime.
In order to get the search warrant, they needed probable cause. Enter Detective Whitehurst and the ashtray.
On Wednesday, in spite of a lengthy and emotional plea for leniency, Irving was given two life sentences by Circuit Judge Benjamin Williams.
``I have a drug problem,'' Irving said. ``I have cried out for help several times.''
Irving, who has no criminal history, said he had always been afraid of hurting himself or someone else while doing drugs. He said he also experienced blackouts from his drug abuse on several occasions.
``I still don't have any recollection'' of the rape and murder, he said. ``I still believe I haven't done that.
``If it happened, I'm truly sorry,'' he said during an apology to his mother and sister, and glancing at members of the Williams family.
``I know I can be rehabilitated,'' he said as his voice broke. ``. . . I ask for leniency.''
Commonwealth's Attorney David Williams said he could not seek the death penalty because there was not enough evidence under the current statute. Instead, he sought the maximum penalty for the capital murder and rape charges.
``By these acts he deserves the maximum possible sentence,'' Williams said during the hearing. ``I would venture her (Robin Willliams') thoughts turned to, `What is this man going to do to my child?' ''
Afterward, ``this defendant . . . goes to his mother's and acts like nothing has happened,'' prosecutor Williams said. ``In order to be rehabilitated, you have got to acknowledge and accept what you've done, and he has not done that.''
Robin Williams was a single mother who worked the evening shift at Portsmouth General Hospital. Following her shift on Sept. 3, 1993, she picked up her son from a baby sitter and came home.
The next day, she did not appear for a class she was taking toward a master's degree in health services administration.
Her sister and classmates called her home, but there was no answer. That's when her brother-in-law went to the apartment to see if she was home.
``This man has robbed our family of our sense of peace, joy and hope,'' Janice Karr, the victim's older sister, said Wednesday after the sentencing. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Willie Leon Irving was sentenced Wednesday to two life terms for the
Chesapeake murder.
KEYWORDS: MURDER CONVICTION by CNB