THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120261
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
A grand jury will be asked to return a murder indictment against a Navy man accused of beating his wife to death with a dumbbell, burying her body in a prepared grave and then abandoning their year-old baby.
A Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge certified charges of first-degree murder and felony child neglect to a grand jury Monday, allowing into evidence Eric D. Ferguson's confession.
Judge H. Thomas Padrick Jr. denied a motion by defense attorney Stanley Sacks to bar the confession from Ferguson, 31.
Ferguson, a first-class petty officer stationed aboard the amphibious assault ship Guam, was charged in August with killing his estranged wife, Andrea, 33.
Police had been searching for Andrea Ferguson for a week after her Navy supervisor reported her missing Aug. 14. Police found her body Aug. 21, after Eric Ferguson confessed to the murder.
Sacks argued that Eric Ferguson, who had agreed to take a polygraph test, had not been advised of his Miranda rights by police.
But Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Paula Bruns argued that Ferguson had agreed to speak with police and had not been taken into police custody when he confessed.
Ferguson and his wife, an aviation electronics technician at Oceana Naval Air Station, had discussed their pending divorce on the day he allegedly killed her, Bruns said.
Ferguson, who had dug a 4-foot deep grave four months earlier, carried to his wife's home a knapsack that contained a dumbbell and a change of clothes, according to Bruns.
Initially, Ferguson attacked his wife from behind and dragged her into the living room, Bruns said. He then began hitting her in the head with his hands and the dumbbell, she said.
He put her body in the back of his car, drove it to Chesapeake and dumped it into the grave, Bruns said.
Ferguson, who did not testify during the preliminary hearing, was questioned by police after Andrea Ferguson's boss reported her missing from work.
Eric Ferguson later drew a map for police and took detectives to her grave, located at the dead end of Woodlake Drive behind a warehouse in Greenbrier Mall.
KEYWORDS: MURDER BEATING ARREST GRAND JURY by CNB