THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270474
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Attorneys for a Norfolk construction worker convicted of murdering his live-in girlfriend and chopping off her head and hands said Tuesday he deserves a new trial because the judge and prosecutors made several errors.
A representative for the state attorney general's office, however, said the judge, prosecutors and jury acted properly throughout the 1994 trial - and the defendant's life sentence should be upheld.
Michael Grant Dial, 39, has been in North Carolina prisons since a Dare County jury convicted him of second-degree murder on March 1, 1994.
On Tuesday, attorneys from both sides argued before three Court of Appeals judges in a Raleigh courtroom. Each lawyer had 30 minutes to present his side of the case and answer judges' questions.
The court should render its written verdict within one to six months.
``I felt really good after the arguments. The judges seemed troubled by all of the issues we raised in this case. And we're hoping they'll grant us another trial,'' said Kitty Hawk lawyer John B. Gladden, who has represented Dial for more than three years.
Assistant Attorney General John Aldridge, who argued for the state Tuesday, said the judges ``asked questions on almost all of the issues we raised. Basically, we asked that the conviction be upheld,'' Aldridge said. ``We'd like to see the judgment and the sentence re-affirmed.''
Brenda Gail Dozier, a 22-year-old cocktail waitress, had lived with Dial for more than a year before she disappeared on July 1, 1991.
Three days later, tourists visiting the Outer Banks for Independence Day discovered Dozier's nude, decapitated, handless body on the beach near the Nags Head police station. The body had washed ashore from the Atlantic Ocean. Relatives identified Dozier by a rose tattoo above her left breast.
In April, 1993, a Dare County jury found that Dozier was killed in North Carolina. The panel split 6-6, however, over whether Dial was guilty of murder. The Superior Court judge accepted the jury's decision on jurisdiction - then declared a mistrial.
Another jury heard the same case last year. This time, jurors were not asked to determine whether the murder took place in North Carolina - only whether Dial committed the crime. After a 12-day trial, the panel convicted Dial.
Dozier's mother, brother and another family member traveled from Norfolk to Raleigh on Tuesday to hear the oral arguments. Detectives from Virginia Beach and Nags Head also were there.
The Court of Appeals panel has a wide range of options in handing down its decision.
It could:
Uphold the Superior Court's decision and sentence and keep Dial behind bars to serve out his sentence. Gladden estimates that his client could be eligible for parole in about seven years.
Uphold the Superior Court's decision and re-sentence Dial.
Reverse some of the Superior Court's decisions on issues within the case, but uphold Dial's conviction and sentence.
Reverse some of the Superior Court's decisions on issues within the case and re-sentence Dial.
Reverse all or some of the most major rulings the Superior Court made and send the case back to Dare County for a third jury trial in the same courtroom.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST TRIAL APPEAL by CNB