DATE: Friday, August 22, 1997               TAG: 9708220818

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ADAM BERNSTEIN, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   73 lines

JUDGE FINDS WOMAN GUILTY OF STALKING ACQUAINTANCE ONLY 5 LOCAL WOMEN HAVE BEEN CONVICTED OF STALKING SINCE '92.

In the early 1990s, Kitty Sue Hannah and Kathleen Powell met Scott Singleton at a barbecue. Hannah and Singleton eventually began dating.

For a while, the three maintained an amicable relationship, going to dinner together, Powell testified in court Thursday. When Hannah was unable to do housework after kidney-replacement surgery, Powell said, she helped out. Powell said she even loaned Singleton $40 for groceries when he was broke.

But by early last year, something went wrong, according to testimony.

Hannah testified that Powell began to terrorize her - following her and making threatening phone calls.

Another witness testified that Powell talked about hiring a hit man to kill Hannah.

On Thursday, Circuit Judge Von L. Piersall Jr. found Powell, 55, of the 4700 block of Valhalla Drive, guilty of stalking - a rarity inHampton Roads. Powell is one of only five women in the area who have been convicted of stalking since 1992, according to court records.

Powell had earlier been convicted on the stalking charge in General District Court, and was given a suspended, six-month jail term. She appealed that conviction, resulting in Thursday's trial.

Perhaps the most unusual testimony Thursday came when Glenda Lunden, testifying for Hannah, told of a conversation she had had with Powell, who had been a friend, last winter as they drove along a highway.

``She said she was coming into some money and was going to hire a . . . man to hurt Kitty Sue Hannah,'' Lunden said. ``Not a day would go by when she didn't mention Kitty Sue Hannah.''

Lunden, who knew Powell but didn't know Hannah, called Hannah and told her everything.

At that time, Hannah claimed, she had been living in fear. Hannah, a 53-year-old real estate agent, testified that she received profanity-laced calls at work from Powell, who routinely followed her on business and personal trips around the community.

Hannah said she had known Powell since the mid-1980s but only hesitatingly called her a friend. ``Let's put it this way,'' she said, ``I felt sorry for her.''

In February 1996, Hannah said, she began ``taking note'' of Powell, whom Hannah claimed to have seen following her in a car.

She said she felt ``very scared.''

The Virginia State Code describes stalking as a case where someone, on more than one occasion, causes a reasonable fear of death, sexual assault or bodily injury to the victim or a member of the victim's family or household.

Gayle Hart, a home renovator and friend of Hannah, testified that she also got harassing calls about Hannah from Powell.

When Powell took the stand, she described herself as a Christian who has ``always lived by the Ten Commandments.'' Although she sobbed for much of the trial, she was composed during her testimony, which described the friendship of the two women and Singleton.

``We were all three friends like,'' she said. ``We all laughed, and I was nice to them.''

As for Hart's testimony, Powell dismissed it.

``I swear on my life . . . that I've never seen this lady before I saw her in the courtroom,'' she said.

Two witnesses for Powell testified that she was a truthful woman.

Public Defender Ashley Keesee, representing Powell, claimed that there was insufficient evidence to convict her client.

Keesee argued that Powell was driving ``in a public city, on public streets. . . . It may be annoying, it may be harassing, but it's not enough evidence to convict of stalking.''

Furthermore, she said, threats posed to Hart were not evidence of threats to Hannah, who has been married to Singleton, 49, since April.

Piersall disagreed, saying the evidence set forth by prosecutor Heather Emmert ``showed attitude and intent that would cause one to be fearful. That's what the statute is about.''

Following a presentence report, Powell will be sentenced Oct. 25. KEYWORDS: STALKING

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