THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 TAG: 9701220394
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 70 lines
Crystal Ricks was talking on the telephone with her mother when she heard the gunshots, one after another.
Suddenly her 13-year-old daughter ran into the house where Crystal was on the phone. She shouted that Crystal's youngest daughter had been injured. Minutes later, Crystal discovered Taylor, 3, lying unconscious in an upstairs bedroom.
``I saw Taylor lying there on the bed with a gunshot wound to the head,'' Ricks testified in Circuit Court Tuesday. ``I picked her up. . . went downstairs and sat in the grass and tried to give her mouth-to-mouth. . . ''
The paramedics arrived, but they were unable to revive Taylor, who had been caught in the crossfire of a neighborhood shootout. She was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Crystal Ricks on Tuesday recalled the terrifying afternoon of April 1, 1996. Her testimony came during the first day of the murder trial for one of three defendants accused of killing her daughter.
The defendant, 18-year-old Jermaine Bell, faces charges of murder, attempted murder and two firearm charges. Bell, who was 17 at the time of the killing, waived his right to a jury and opted for a bench trial before Judge Junius P. Fulton III.
The other two suspects in the murder, Ronald Cooke and Darrell Smith, are scheduled for trial in February. None of the Norfolk men has admitted to firing the fatal shot.
On the day of the shootout, Taylor thought the gunshots were fireworks and ran to the window to see, police said. The children had been playing in an upstairs bedroom at the Rickses' home in the 100 block of Hough St. when the gunplay started. Crystal Ricks was using her aunt's phone two houses away and had just learned that her grandmother had died that morning.
Ricks testified she heard at least 15 gunshots, ``one behind the other.'' Then, when her daughter told her what was happening, Crystal dropped the phone and ran to her other children.
Prosecutors Chuck Griffith and Karen Burrell argued that because of his participation in the incident, Bell should be convicted in the girl's death, as well as the attempted murder of the intended victim, Cecil Manley.
All three defendants are responsible for the death, Burrell said.
Burrell called it a case of violence, street justice and death.
``This is a case about absolute disregard for the value of human life,'' she told the judge in an opening statement.
Testimony will show that Bell was the driver of a car from which a passenger fired shots toward Taylor's second-floor room, she said.
But Bell's attorney, William Swan, said that in order for his client to be convicted of first-degree murder, testimony would have to show that Bell fired the fatal shot.
Investigators determined that the gun used to kill Taylor was a semi-automatic rifle. Several witnesses said that they did not see Bell holding a rifle.
The shootout resulted from a feud between the intended victim, Manley, and one of the co-defendants, Darrell Smith, prosecutors said. Both men have children by the same woman, witnesses testified, but at the time the woman was involved with Manley.
Manley testified that he was moving boxes and clothing from her Berkley home when the suspects came gunning for him. Testimony indicated that shots were fired from a car. Manley testified he was chased down on foot as well.
Both sides are expected to rest their cases today. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Taylor Ricks looked out of her second-story window to see the
gunfire she heard being exchanged. One bullet struck her. Three
defendants are accused in her death. The trial for the first one has
started.
KEYWORDS: SHOOTING INJURY ARREST ASSAULT