THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607130175
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 70 lines
Confessed teenage drug dealer Royale Stewart told a jury Friday that he accidentally shot and killed a delivery driver outside a convenience store last year during a dispute over a $1,200 drug debt.
That's a radically different story from the one Stewart, 18, told police when he was arrested for killing Kevin Gallegos outside a 7-Eleven in the 4000 block of Hampton Blvd.
Stewart is being tried for capital murder, and might face the death penalty if the 12-member jury believes the earlier version - that Stewart killed Gallegos during a robbery.
Stewart, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, had told police several versions of what he was doing when Gallegos was killed in the afternoon of Feb. 10, 1995.
He first told police he knew nothing about the shooting and was nowhere near the 7-Eleven when Gallegos was shot once by a .38 semiautomatic handgun. The bullet tore through Gallegos' lungs and aorta. He later died at a hospital.
During the same interview session at police headquarters on Feb. 24, 1995, he changed his story and told investigators that he was at the 7-Eleven on the day of the shooting but had nothing to do with Gallegos' death.
Stewart finally told police that he and two other men - Ocie Wilson and Gerald Crandle - went to the 7-Eleven in a car on Feb. 10 and spotted Gallegos as he got out of his delivery truck and went to a pay telephone outside the store. The three men then plotted to rob Gallegos because he looked like he had money, Stewart said. They planned to split the take three ways. Stewart told police Gallegos was shot during the robbery.
On Friday, Stewart testified that that version was concocted by police and he only went along with it because, ``I was afraid and didn't want to go to jail.''
Stewart said he believed that telling the truth about the drug deal would put him in danger of facing federal drug charges, which he believed to be more serious than capital murder.
Stewart, who admitted to the jury that he had been involved in the business of ``marketing narcotics,'' said he met Gallegos in Newport News during a drug deal at a service station three weeks before the shooting.
Stewart said that during that meeting he ``fronted'' Gallegos one pound of marijuana. He said he expected Gallegos to pay him for the marijuana ``as soon as possible.''
When Gallegos paged him three weeks later, Stewart said he expected to collect the drug money. The two agreed to meet at the Hampton Boulevard 7-Eleven.
Stewart said he took a loaded gun with him and got a lift from Wilson and Crandle when he met them on the way to the store.
At the 7-Eleven, Stewart walked up to Gallegos while he was talking on the pay telephone.
``I said, `forget about the phone call,' '' Stewart testified Friday.
When Gallegos refused and told Stewart that he did not have the money, the two began to wrestle.
Stewart said he pulled out the gun because, ``I was hoping he would back up off me and just leave. That's what I would do.''
Stewart said that just as he was about to pull away from Gallegos the gun fired.
``Somehow it just went off,'' Stewart told the jury. ``It happened so fast, it kind of shocked me when it fired.''
Testimony in the trial will continue Monday. ILLUSTRATION: Royale Stewart now says he accidentally
shot and killed delivery driver Kevin Gallegos
at a Norfolk
7-Eleven in a dispute over a $1,200 drug debt.
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL SHOOTING DRUGS ILLEGAL by CNB