THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 17, 1997 TAG: 9701180348
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 78 lines
Kevin S. Painter took the stand Thursday to explain why he constructed a web of lies and refused to cooperate with police as they investigated the Aug. 8, 1995, rape and strangulation of 17-year-old Amber M. Zajac.
``I was scared,'' the 19-year-old Painter told Judge John K. Moore and the jury in Painter's trial for first-degree murder and rape. ``I had been with her that night and I thought the police might think that I killed her.''
So Painter lied when police questioned him on Aug. 17, 1995, he said. He claimed he knew nothing about Zajac and how she was raped and strangled on a wooded pathway that separates the Derby Run and Redwing subdivisions in Virginia Beach.
Painter, who was 17 at the time of Zajac's death and worked as a dishwasher at the Golden Corral restaurant on General Booth Boulevard, also refused to give blood and hair samples when asked to do so by Virginia Beach detectives. Painter claimed it was ``none of his business'' and that he ``did not want to get involved.''
Police were forced to get a search warrant to get the samples, which were used to compare Painter's DNA to the DNA extracted from semen found in Zajac's body.
When the test results showed a match, Painter was arrested on Jan. 11, 1996, his 18th birthday, at the Norfolk Vocational Technical School, where he was a student.
That's when Painter changed his story. He admitted that he knew Zajac, and had, in fact, been intimate with her on the night of her death, in the same woods where Zajac's partly nude body was found.
Painter testified Thursday that he had known Zajac for about two weeks before her death. He claimed that days after meeting Zajac he saw her again, outside the apartment where he lived with his aunt.
``That day we had intercourse inside my aunt's house,'' Painter testified.
Painter said the next time he saw Zajac he was standing outside a 7-Eleven store near Derby Run, sometime after 11 p.m. Aug. 7.
Painter said he approached Zajac and began walking beside her.
``We were just walking and talking,'' Painter said. ``I didn't think nothing was going to happen. I was just walking.''
Painter said that when the two entered the woods, ``we started hugging and kissing, stuff like that. Then we had sexual intercourse.''
The two got dressed and parted, Painter testified.
``I told her I would give her a call and she said `All right,' '' Painter said.
Painter testified that he learned the next day that Zajac's body had been found in the woods.
Physical evidence found at the murder scene seemed to contradict Painter's story.
When questioned after his arrest, Painter told police detectives that he saw Zajac put her underwear on after their sexual encounter.
But under cross-examination Thursday by prosecutor Shepherd D. Wainger, Painter could not explain how Zajac managed not to get semen stains on her underwear.
``If you had had consensual sex with her and she put her underwear on, there would have been semen stains there,'' Wainger said.
Painter answered that it was dark in the woods and he may not have seen clearly.
``I had assumed that she had put on her panties,'' Painter said.
Zajac's body was found face down with her skirt and underwear around her ankles, according to police testimony.
Kenneth Pallett, 23, was originally charged with first-degree murder and rape in the case and jailed for five weeks before Painter's arrest. He testified Thursday that he fabricated a confession about witnessing Zajac's rape and finding her body because ``I just wanted to tell them anything they wanted to hear so they would let me go.
``I never actually seen her lying in the woods,'' Pallett said. ``I made up this whole story because the police were interrogating me.'' The charges against Pallett eventually were dropped.
The case will go to the jury after closing arguments this morning. Painter faces a possible life sentence if convicted. ILLUSTRATION: Amber M. Zajac's body was found in a wooded area on
Aug. 8, 1995.
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL