THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501070238
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
The two men sitting in the $45,000 Lexus looked nervous.
Too nervous for a routine traffic stop, Maryland State Police Cpl. Mike Lewis said.
What Lewis found on Thursday is a key piece of evidence in a contract-murder case that Chesapeake police have pursued for more than a year.
On Friday, Lewis told about the encounter that got him involved in one of Chesapeake's most publicized murders.
In a secret compartment in the car's dashboard was a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun, a Colt Government Model.
The gun was used to fire two bullets into the back of Helen Bedsole's head last year in Chesapeake, police said.
During the afternoon of Nov. 9, 1993, someone broke into Helen Bedsole's Geneva Shores home and killed her, days before her divorce would have been final, Chesapeake police said.
Police, citing domestic troubles, suspected that her husband of 25 years, Clark C. Bedsole, 46, was the gunman.
``The murder was domestic-related and involved the Bedsoles' estate,'' Chesapeake Detective R.W. Young said previously.
But gathering the evidence to charge him took time.
On Nov. 11 - more than a year after the slaying - Clark Bedsole and the man police said he hired to kill his 44-year-old wife were arrested. Police did not find the gun.
What Chesapeake detectives couldn't find through persistent police work, Lewis found by chance.
The driver of the luxury car pulled to the side of U.S. 13 in Salisbury, Md., Thursday at 2 p.m. The driver probably thought he had stopped on the road's shoulder, Lewis said, but he had parked in a traffic lane and was blocking traffic.
Lewis confronted the two men in the car, identified as Anthony B. Wells, a 26-year-old Portsmouth resident, and David L. Cherry, 24, of New York. They acted too nervous for a simple traffic infraction, Lewis said.
Lewis, a veteran investigator who specializes in stopping drug runners who use U.S. 13 to ferry illegal cargoes south from New York, searched the car.
The passenger-side air bag had been removed and the space converted to a hidden compartment concealing the fully loaded gun and a spare magazine.
The compartment was designed to open using an electronic and hydraulic combination, but Lewis said he has yet to figure out exactly how it worked. Lewis opened it with a claw hammer.
Such secret compartments are common in drug trafficking, Lewis said.
Both men were arrested and charged with having a concealed weapon. Wells, the driver who was convicted previously of a felony, was charged with possession of a handgun.
After Lewis entered the gun's serial number in a national crime computer, he learned that the weapon was wanted in connection with the Bedsole homicide investigation.
Both men told Lewis they didn't know about the gun or the secret compartment. Wells was released after posting bond, and Cherry was released on his promise to return to court.
Lewis said neither man was considered a suspect in the Bedsole homicide, although Wells' name surfaced early in the investigation, as did the name of the alleged hit man, Marlon D. Williams of Portsmouth.
On Friday, Chesapeake Detective C.E. Whitehurst was sent to pick up the gun and return to Virginia, where the weapon will be further examined and tagged as evidence, Lewis said.
Williams and Clark Bedsole are scheduled for preliminary hearings on murder charges next week. ILLUSTRATION: Helen Bedsole was shot to death in her home days before her
divorce would have been final.
KEYWORDS: ARREST CONCEALED WEAPON MURDER by CNB