THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 18, 1997 TAG: 9701180368
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 63 lines
Kevin S. Painter was convicted of first-degree murder and rape Friday by a jury that took less than one hour to decide that the 19-year-old former Norview High School student strangled and sexually assaulted Amber M. Zajac 17 months ago.
``Amber has finally received justice,'' a tearful Joe Zajac, Amber's father, said in an interview after the jury of seven men and five women returned with the verdict in Circuit Court. ``I thank the jurors and prosecutors for their hard work.''
After first denying that he had any contact with Zajac on the night of her death, Painter claimed he had consensual sex on Aug. 8, 1995, with the 17-year-old Ocean Lakes High School student. It occurred, Painter said, beside a wooded pathway that connects the Redwing subdivision, where Zajac lived with her family, and the Derby Run subdivision. Afterward, Painter claimed, the two got dressed, spoke briefly and parted company.
Hours later, Zajac's father and his girlfriend found the victim's body in the woods. She was face down and nude below the waist. Zajac's purse strap, which was found wrapped around her neck, had been used to strangle her.
The chief prosecutor said Painter failed to convince the jury that his version of events was true.
``No one believed his story,'' Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Shepherd D. Wainger said after the verdict.
``Credibility was the key, and there was no one to corroborate his story.''
Wainger was able to convince jurors that Painter did not know Zajac before Aug. 8, when he saw her walking around midnight near a 7-Eleven close to Derby Run. Zajac was returning home after spending the day with friends at Lynnhaven Mall.
Painter, 17 at the time, was returning home from his job as a dishwasher at Golden Corral on General Booth Boulevard.
According to witnesses who testified during the trial, Painter boldly approached Zajac with flirtatious conversation and, while pushing his bike, walked with her into the woods.
Zajac showed no indication that she knew Painter or desired his company, witnesses said. That was the last time Zajac was seen alive.
Police investigators originally arrested Kenneth Pallett, an unemployed felon who lived with his parents in a Derby Run trailer park near the scene of the murder. He was charged with first-degree murder and rape and jailed for more than a month.
Pallett was released when DNA tests showed that semen found on the victim did not match his chromosome identification.
The same test matched Painter's DNA with DNA found on Zajac's body.
But it may have been Zajac's underwear, found at the murder scene, that sealed Painter's fate.
According to Painter, during his interview with detectives on Jan. 11, 1996, Zajac got dressed following her sexual encounter with him, putting on both her underwear and her shorts.
Had that actually happened, Wainger told the jury, semen stains would have shown up on Zajac's underwear. Instead, the underwear was clean of semen stains, indicating that Zajac never got dressed after Painter raped and strangled her.
``I think the underwear was the key piece of evidence,'' Wainger said after the verdict. ``It proved he was lying.''
Judge John K. Moore will sentence Painter March 19.
He faces a possible sentence of life in prison.
KEYWORDS: MURDER CONVICTION TRIAL RAPE