THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996                 TAG: 9603290461
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                     LENGTH: Medium:   79 lines

MURDER SUSPECT TO BE TRIED AS ADULT JUDGE HEARD TESTIMONY THAT PAINTER, THEN 17, WAS SEEN WITH THE VICTIM.

A judge on Thursday heard testimony from five witnesses - including one who described the grim discovery of the victim's body on a wooded path - before ruling that Kevin Painter will be tried as an adult in the death of Amber Zajac.

Painter, who is being held in the Virginia Beach Jail without bail, is charged with rape and murder in the August 1995 strangulation death of the 17-year-old girl. Painter, who was 17 at the time of the crime and is now 18, faces life in prison without parole. He has no juvenile record.

In her testimony, Susan Hopkins described her walk along the dark, wooded path in the early morning hours of Aug. 8 as she and the victim's father, Joe Zajac, searched for the missing girl.

As Juvenile Judge Woodrow Lewis Jr. listened, she described the moment when her flashlight illuminated something that looked like a white plastic bag.

``It was Amber's hat,'' she said.

Then Hopkins, Joe Zajac's girlfriend, saw Amber's body face down on the ground, her legs spread apart, her purse strap around her neck.

``I screamed, `I found her. Go call 911,' '' Hopkins testified. She then broke down in tears on the witness stand.

``I stayed with Amber,'' she testified. ``I wasn't going to leave her alone. Whoever had done that to her, I wasn't going to let them come back and do anything else to her. . . . I kept screaming at her and saying, `Amber, wake up' and she wouldn't wake up.''

Amber had told her family that she was working that night, Hopkins testified, but apparently swapped shifts and spent the evening with friends. She called at her usual time and said she would get a ride home from work. When Hopkins awakened at 2:30 a.m. and realized Amber wasn't home, she and Joe Zajac went out to look for her. They found her body about 4 a.m.

Hopkins' testimony came during a hearing to determine if Painter should be tried as an adult. Painter's mother, stepfather, aunt and uncle and other relatives sat on the left side of the courtroom, the Zajac family and friends on the right.

Another witness, a 17-year-old acquaintance of Amber's, testified that he and his brother ran into Painter the night of Aug. 7 and went to a nearby 7-Eleven together. Painter was wearing his uniform from his job at Golden Corral. Amber walked up about 11:20 p.m., the youth testified.

``Kevin asked if he could walk her home,'' the youth testified. ``She shrugged her shoulders like she didn't care.''

Painter said he was concerned about Amber walking alone down the path that separates the Derby Run Trailer Park from the Redwing neighborhood where she lived, the youth testified. The two then headed off together in that direction, with Painter pushing his bike, he said.

Assistant Chief Medical Examiner Faruk Presswalla estimated Amber's death to be about midnight. He said he could not say whether the sexual abuse to Amber occurred before or after her death, but said there were marks on her legs indicating that someone had forced her thighs apart while she was alive.

David Pomposini, who supervises the DNA section of the forensics lab in Norfolk, testified that blood taken from Painter matched semen samples taken from Amber's body. The chances of such a match are 1 in 500 billion for Caucasians, 1 in 600 billion for blacks and 1 in 20 billion for Hispanics, he testified. Painter is black.

Painter told police he only walked Amber to the entrance of the trailer park that night, then went home. Detectives who checked Painter's time card found it didn't match the time he had said he left his job to go home, records show.

Painter was the second person arrested in Amber's death. The first was Kenneth N. Pallett, who gave a series of stories that ended with his admission that he served as lookout while another person raped her. He was released in October after genetic tests showed he wasn't the rapist. Prosecutors could reinstate charges or impose lesser charges if additional evidence develops, police have said. ILLUSTRATION: Amber Zajac of Virginia Beach was found raped and strangled in

August.

KEYWORDS: TESTIMONY MURDER RAPE by CNB