THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 12, 1995 TAG: 9507120382
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LaFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Virginia state police may never solve the mystery of how a loaded gun got into the typewriter of executed inmate Willie Lloyd Turner, Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore told members of the state Crime Commission Tuesday.
``I'm not . . . suggesting or promising definite answers,'' Kilgore said during the often contentious meeting. ``Because, as I said at the beginning of this investigation, we may never know the answers.''
Summoned before the Crime Commission's corrections subcommittee, Kilgore, Director of Corrections Ronald Angelone and State Police Superintendent Col. M. Wayne Huggins dodged questions about the gun - a loaded .32-caliber Smith and Wesson with 12 extra bullets - that was discovered in Turner's typewriter about an hour after his execution May 25.
Because the investigation is continuing, Kilgore said, he and the other two officials could not answer many of the commission's questions. Their refusal clearly frustrated some members, who complained that the inquiry has taken too long, that it has become politicized and that ``the fox was in charge of the henhouse.''
``It bothers me that I cannot get a straight answer as to the status of this investigation,'' Del. Clifton A. Woodrum, D-Roanoke, said after the meeting. ``I think the public is entitled to a straight answer on this one.''
Kilgore dismissed the concerns of the largely Democratic Crime Commission. In an interview after the meeting, he called the session ``just another election-year ploy by the committee.''
``They're the ones that are politicizing this issue,'' he said. ``They knew we had not completed the investigation and they knew I would not be able to say anything definitive.
``I don't mind appearing before these committees, but let's point the finger where it needs to be pointed. . . . I just don't see how doing hearing after hearing on this gun issue benefits the administration. We are just trying to get to the bottom of this issue.''
The saga of the gun in the typewriter began about an hour after Turner's execution when his lawyer, acting on instructions from Turner, opened the machine in an Emporia hotel room and found the weapon.
A brief probe into the matter by the Department of Corrections ended with the announcement that it was a ``probable hoax'' by Turner's lawyer. Three days later, Gov. George F. Allen assigned the case to the state police. Their inquiry, now in its sixth week, will end ``within a two-week period,'' Kilgore said Tuesday.
``It's not like you're interviewing the whole world,'' Woodrum protested. ``Or like you're looking for the Unabomber. I don't know why it's taken you more than a month. . . . It would seem to me that just pure curiosity might speed your cause slightly.''
Del. Howard E. Copeland, D-Norfolk, asked Kilgore about Michael Stokes, an inmate at the Greensville Correctional Center who says corrections officers assigned an inmate to beat him in retaliation for giving information about the gun to state police.
Stokes, who was in protective custody when the beating occurred, suffered injuries requiring 32 stitches.
The Department of Corrections investigated the beating and concluded that Stokes' injuries ``had nothing to do with his cooperation with the state police,'' Kilgore said. ``That was a personal issue between the two inmates.''
Copeland was skeptical. The Corrections Department has dismissed the beating the same way it dismissed the gun incident, he said after the meeting.
``They're down the same path of initial denial, and then, when there is public outcry, they cave and do the right thing,'' he said. ``Again, it's internal. It's the fox in charge of the henhouse. You've got an institutional interest in exonerating the department. We may end up with the feds investigating this thing.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
``I'm not . . . suggesting or promising definite answers,'' said
Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore.
Del. Howard E. Copeland, D-Norfolk, said federal investigators may
``end up'' involved in the case.
KEYWORDS: MURDER DEATH ROW HANDGUNS INVESTIGATION by CNB