THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 30, 1996 TAG: 9610300407
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 82 lines
Traibeon L. Thomas needed help on the night of Jan. 14 when the right front tire of his Hyundai Elantra blew out in the eastbound lane of Route 44 near Laskin Road.
Initially, he got it. Good Samaritan Carlo Gilliam stopped to assist Thomas, and took the 26-year-old father of two young children to a telephone to call a tow truck.
But when Gilliam and Thomas returned to the disabled car, two other men had stopped their Honda Civic along the road - with something other than good will in mind.
When Thomas, walked up to the car, he found one of the men, 19-year-old Cory Delaurencio, inside. Moments later, Thomas lay bleeding by his car with a fatal gunshot to the head from a .22 caliber handgun. Thomas, a sailor from Eustis, Fla., stationed in Hampton Roads, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
On Tuesday, one of Thomas's assailants, Aaron Merritt, 24, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and robbery. He will be sentenced Jan. 6. Delaurencio, the alleged trigger man, goes on trial in December for capital murder.
Merritt, who drove the Honda in which he and Delaurencio escaped, faces at least 23 years in prison, the minimum for the charges of first-degree murder and robbery. The plea agreement, though, guarantees that Merritt will not get a life sentence, said his lawyer, Norfolk attorney Jerrauld C. Jones.
``I think there are many mitigating factors,'' Jones said Tuesday following Merritt's hearing before Circuit Judge Jerome Friedman. Merritt has no previous record, Jones said, and he ``has been honest all the time'' in his statements to police, Jones said.
But the facts of how disabled motorist Thomas was killed in cold blood, and then robbed, are chilling, especially for anyone who has ever been stranded by the side of a road.
Merritt took $60 of the $150 that Delaurencio stole from Thomas's wallet, and then made threatening comments about two witnesses to the crime later that evening, prosecutor Cynthia Shepherd told the court.
``Thomas was absolutely innocent,'' said Shepherd. ``He hadn't done anything.''
On the night of the crime, Delaurencio and Merritt, both Navy men, were headed to the club for enlisted sailors at the Oceana Naval Air Station when they spotted Thomas's stranded car at approximately 11 p.m., Shepherd said.
Delaurencio had developed a reputation among Navy men for breaking into cars and stealing stereo equipment, officials said. That reputation had earned him the nickname ``Circuit City,'' because he always was in possession of stereo equipment for automobiles.
When Delaurencio told Merritt he wanted to ``check out'' Thomas's car, that could have meant only one thing to Merritt, Shepherd said.
``Aaron Merritt knew that `check it out' meant Delaurencio wanted to steal some things,'' Shepherd told the court.
At first, Merritt waited in the Honda while Delaurencio got into Thomas's car. But he went to Thomas's car moments before Thomas was shot, Shepherd said.
Gilliam heard a gunshot and saw Thomas fall before he drove away from the scene to call police. When he returned to the scene, Shepherd said, Thomas was dead.
Meanwhile, two female motorists had stopped to assist Thomas, Shepherd said. They witnessed two men driving away from the scene in a white Honda Civic and reported it to police.
Police were able to track Merritt and Delaurencio to the enlisted club at Oceana. They confronted Delaurencio in the parking lot of the club. Delaurencio engaged police in a ``gun fight'' before he was apprehended, Shepherd said.
Merritt, Shepherd said, arranged a ride home to Portsmouth with another Navy man, Curtis Alford, whom Merritt and Delaurencio had met in the enlisted club. As Merritt and Alford drove along Route 44 past the murder scene, Merritt told Alford what had happened earlier.
``He said that's what he and his boy had done,'' Shepherd told the court. ``And he said they should have done something to those girls because they didn't want there to be any witnesses.''
Although Merritt was questioned by police the next day, he was not arrested until February. At first he was charged with second-degree murder and conspiracy to rob. He was later reindicted on charges of first-degree murder and robbery. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
In court Tuesday: Aaron Merritt.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERY SHOOTING MURDER STRANDED VEHICLE
GUILTY PLEA by CNB