THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060334
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
Mathew Morris thought he was driving his two new friends to North Carolina to get away from their parents, who didn't want them dating.
Morris, testifying in Juvenile Court on Wednesday, said he thought Joshua Johnson and his girlfriend, Kelly Anne Dara, were joking when they said they had stabbed another teenager, Joey Garcia, to steal his car.
Morris believed Josh when he said the speckles of blood on his shirt were from a nosebleed. He thought it was just ``s---s and giggles'' when Kelly said she had beeped Joey to lure him to her house to kill him.
But when Morris, Johnson and Dara checked into the Ocean Reef Best Western on N.C. Route 12 on March 6 and turned on the TV, Morris realized his companions had not been kidding. Salem High School student Joseph M. Garcia III, 17, was dead, the news report said. He had been stabbed in the back.
Police were broadcasting the names and pictures of Johnson and Dara, asking citizens to be on the lookout for the pair.
``The news came on,'' Morris testified. ``The murder came on.
``I said, `I gotta get the hell out of here,' and I left.''
Morris, 19, called police the next day to tell them where Dara and Johnson were. Kill Devil Hills police picked them up that day.
Wednesday, after hearing Morris' testimony, Judge Ronald H. Marks ruled that Dara, 17, should be tried as an adult in Garcia's slaying. She and Johnson, 18, both face trial for first-degree murder.
Garcia's parents said Wednesday they agreed with the decision to try Dara as as an adult and said they ``seek only justice'' in the slaying of their second-oldest child. They are still struggling to understand the apparently senseless slaying of their son, who aspired to a career as a naval officer and wanted to attend the U.S. Naval Academy.
``They took a perfectly trusting child and killed him for his car,'' said Juana Garcia, her voice quavering as her husband Joseph wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
``Why would she want to do this to another teenager? I can't comprehend it. I have no idea what goes through their minds. Why?'' she said.
Garcia said her son was getting ready for the Salem High School ring dance, where the junior class celebrates getting class rings. He had a date and was making plans to pick up his tuxedo. He made good grades and had already applied to the Naval Academy, she said.
``He was a volunteer at the Children's Hospital every summer,'' she said. ``He would take the kids riding in the wagons.''
Defense attorneys tried to paint a different picture of Joey Garcia in cross-examination of witnesses Wednesday, implying that he had a violent streak and had slapped Dara on several occasions, including the day of the slaying.
Their questioning implied a scenario in which Dara and Garcia, Salem High schoolmates, got into a fight, Garcia hit Dara, and Johnson rushed in with a knife.
But Dara told a different story during the 1 1/2-hour drive to Kill Devil Hills that night, Morris testified.
``Kelly said, `Oh well, he's dead and I don't care,' '' Morris testified. ``She said she meant to make him mad. . . She intentionally started an argument to get him to smack her, and he did. . . He smacked her in the face with his hand. . . She said he deserved to die.''
In court Wednesday, Dara - described by friends as a popular and attractive senior who dated Johnson against her parents' wishes - showed no emotion as she sat wearing an oversized navy sweatshirt, the sleeves pulled partially over her hands.
The case against Dara changed dramatically on the day of the killing, in the hours after she and Johnson were seen running from Dara's two-story house in the 1400 block of Marmora Road.
At first, investigators thought Johnson, acting on his own, stabbed Garcia twice in the back. They thought Dara fled with him in a panic. Police began a search for the teenagers, circulating pictures and information about the two. At first, they only wanted to question her.
Johnson, of the 1000 block of Pleasant Circle, was facing charges of burglary and grand larceny at the time of the slaying.
But when police learned that Dara allegedly withdrew money using a bank card stolen from her mother, they became more suspicious of her role.
In a phone conversation moments before the killing, Dara allegedly told a friend he wouldn't have to worry about Joey Garcia any more.
``I asked her why,'' 19-year-old Arceo Vitangcol testified Wednesday. ``She said, `Josh, Josh, can I tell him? It begins and ends with the same letter'.
``I thought for a couple seconds and said `Dead?' She said yes. She said she was leaving and wasn't coming back. Then she said, `I gotta go. I gotta go.' I took that to mean Joey was there.''
Wednesday, police said that when they arrived on the street outside Dara's house, Garcia was slumped in his burgundy Honda sedan, near death. He had staggered to his car after the attack and driven a short distance before blacking out at the intersection of Marmora Road and Gravenhurst Drive.
``Rescue was preparing to transport the victim,'' said homicide detective Dennis Hebert. ``There was a pool of blood outside the vehicle and blood in a console between the seats.''
Garcia died shortly afterward at the hospital.
After Garcia's slaying, Salem High School Principal E. Wayne Sykes praised the teenager for his high goals and the efforts he was making to achieve them.
``That's what makes this so hard to understand,'' Sykes said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Joshua Johnson, 18, charged with murder.
Kelley Anne Dara, 17, charged with murder.
Joseph M. Garcia III, 17, stabbed to death.
KEYWORDS: MURDER STABBING ARREST TRIAL by CNB