THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100435
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PRINCESS ANNE, MD. LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Two suspects charged with killing a state trooper during a routine traffic stop were ordered to stand trial at a preliminary hearing Thursday after a detective testified that one of them, an Elizabeth City man, confessed to firing the fatal shot.
Ivan Lovell, 24, waived the preliminary hearing in Somerset County District Court.
A judge ruled that there was enough probable cause to send to trial the charges against his alleged accomplice, William Lynch, 21, of New York.
The men were charged with first-degree murder and drug-related crimes after a pound of suspected crack and powder cocaine was found in their car, police said.
The suspects were accused of murdering Trooper Edward Plank Oct. 17. Plank, 28, was killed by a gunshot wound to the head after making a routine traffic stop along southbound U.S. Route 13 in Princess Anne.
Lovell, who was shot by Plank's partner as the suspects got away, was apprehended after breaking into a home a few miles north of Crisfield. He was knocked out by the homeowner. Lynch was captured after authorities found him hiding in some bushes about two miles from where Plank was shot.
At Thursday's hearing, which Plank's parents attended, state police Sgt. Michael Kinhart testified that Lovell told investigators that he was the trigger-man and the driver of the car Plank stopped.
Kinhart also testified that Lynch told detectives he saw Lovell with the gun as Plank approached the car and asked Lovell, ``You're not going to shoot him, now?''
Lynch's attorney tried to use the testimony that Lovell fired the shot to have the murder charge against Lynch dropped.
``There is no question as to who fired the gun. Statements by Mr. Lovell and Mr. Lynch indicate who fired the gun,'' said William Purpura, Lynch's attorney.
Judge John Norton rejected the argument, stating there was a ``kernel'' of evidence that the two men had a common purpose in being in the car.
Several witnesses told detectives that Lynch and Lovell, who are cousins, were on their way back to North Carolina from New York City with cocaine, Kinhart said.
Somerset County State's Attorney Logan Widdowson said after the hearing that he had not made a decision on whether to seek the death penalty. Purpura said he would probably ask that the case be tried outside of Somerset County. by CNB