THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509220610
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BRIGITTE GREENBERG, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DANBURY, CONN. LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
A computerized measure of the distance the defendant in a quintuple murder case would have had to have traveled to commit the crime showed a close match to the mileage he logged on a rental car.
State police Detective James Bleidner testified Thursday that he used a computer mapping program to determine the distance would be 1,817 miles if a person were to drive from Powells Point, N.C., to Redding, Conn., and then head down south to Hilton Head, S.C., before returning to Powells Point.
The distance is significant because the suspect, Geoffrey K. Ferguson, 45, of Powells Point rented a 1990 champagne-colored Ford Tempo from a company in nearby Harbinger, N.C., on April 17. According to company records, he racked up 1,929 miles by the time he returned the vehicle on April 20.
The prosecution believes Ferguson rented the car, drove to Connecticut and committed the murders on April 18, then turned around and headed to South Carolina, meeting his wife there on April 19 before returning home.
Prosecutors believe Ferguson, the landlord of a three-family house in Redding, killed three of his tenants and two of their friends over a longstanding rent dispute.
The victims were Scott Auerbach, 21; David Froehlich, 22; Jason Trusewicz, 21; David Gartrell, 25, and Sean Hiltunen, 21.
Ferguson is accused of shooting each of the five men in the back of the head, then setting fire to the house, which was destroyed in the blaze. He is charged with five counts of murder, two counts of capital felony and one arson count. State's Attorney Walter Flanagan has thus far declined to say whether he will seek the death penalty.
Bleidner was one of seven witnesses to testify Thursday in a hearing to determine whether there is evidence to bring Ferguson to trial. The hearing before Superior Court Edward F. Stodolink was scheduled to resume Friday.
Earlier in the day, a security guard at a private, gated community in Hilton Head called Moss Creek Plantation testified that Ferguson had been expected to arrive at the community on April 17.
Ojars Jurjans testified that Vincent O'Toole, who has a home in the community and is Ferguson's father-in-law, had told Jurjans to expect Ferguson to arrive in a pickup truck.
The policy of the community is to register a guest in advance with the security desk if the person is driving a vehicle that doesn't have a special sticker, Jurjans explained.
Pickups pose a particular problem because community policy all but prohibits them, Jurjans said, explaining that residents of the affluent community have deemed them unsightly. A pickup must be kept in a garage or taken to a special parking lot, Jurjans said.
Log sheets from the security desk show Ferguson had been expected that day but didn't arrive until April 19. He didn't arrive in a pickup truck but in what Jurjans described as ``nondescript off-color white or grayish color four-door sedan.''
On cross examination, defense attorney Miles Gerety made much of the fact that Ferguson's wife, Kerie, was nowhere noted on the log sheets, though she was a guest.
On redirect by Assistant State's Attorney Patricia Gilbert, Jurjans said that Mrs. Ferguson arrived with her mother and said that car had the requisite sticker, so Mrs. Ferguson's presence wouldn't have been noted. by CNB