Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 27, 1990 TAG: 9006270270
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"As far as we were concerned, there was no question," said juror Bill Ruch. "There was never any dissension with the jury. We were all pretty much on the same wavelength."
Ruch, 62, called Strickler the "ringleader" in the kidnapping, robbery and murder of Leann Whitlock in January. The jury recommended that Strickler be given the death penalty.
"The only violent behavior came from Strickler, according to the testimony," Ruch said.
Witnesses who testified at Strickler's trial described him as agitated on the night Whitlock was killed.
He was the person who forced his way into her car and punched her several times before being joined by others.
He was the person seen driving the car.
And he was the person who twice pulled a knife on his friends, Ronald Lee Henderson and Donna Kay Tudor.
Tudor testified that Strickler threatened Henderson with the knife because he didn't like his driving.
She said he later cut the car's dashboard during an argument they had together.
"Strickler was the instigator of the whole sequence of events from the abduction on through," said juror Loris Jarvis, 39, who works at the Hershey plant in Stuarts Draft.
It took the jury only an hour to reach a guilty verdict and only another half-hour to decide his sentence.
"The case was clear. It was such a brutal, brutal murder and it was so totally random and so damn vile, just senseless," Jarvis said.
Whitlock, a James Madison University sophomore from Roanoke, was killed in a wooded area near Waynesboro. The murder weapon was a 69-pound rock that was thrown on her head at least two times.
"It wasn't just shoot her once and leave," said the jury foreman, John Scheufel, a former Augusta County deputy. "This was two or three times that she was hit with this boulder rock or whatever you want to call it."
The rock proved a powerful piece of evidence in helping convict Strickler, Scheufel said. Several jurors tried to pick it up during deliberations and had trouble.
"What we wanted to find out was could one person do this? There was no way," Scheufel said.
That was enough to convince jurors that it took two or more people to kill Whitlock - one to hold her down while the other dropped the rock.
"I don't see how it could have been any other way," said juror Leo Joyce.
Defense attorneys for Strickler had argued that there was no proof that he actively participated in the slaying. He could have been in the car as Henderson carried out the murder, they argued.
But jurors didn't buy that story.
"He did more than just sit in the car and watch," Scheufel said. "He wasn't just a follower. He seemed to be in charge."
Henderson also has been charged with robbery, abduction and capital murder, but remains at large. In addition, he has been charged by the FBI with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Prosecutors hope to have Henderson profiled on the television show, "America's Most Wanted." He was reported to have last been in Nevada.
Swanson Carter, chief of the FBI's special productions unit in Washington, D.C., said the FBI is definitely going to give the program information about the Henderson case.
But after that, he said the final decision on whether to profile Henderson is up to the show's producers.
"I'm very curious where Henderson is," Jarvis said. "I'd be tempted to take a week of vacation and sit in on his trial if and when they catch him."
However, Jarvis isn't sure if he could stomach another trial. Other jurors agreed. The trial took its toll on them emotionally.
"I can tell you we are 12 people who are not the same people we were Monday morning when this trial started," Ruch said.
"I feel we had a look at the other side of humanity last week - a side we had hoped didn't exist, but we know now that it does," he said.
"We felt like we were given a very distasteful job and we did the best we could," Ruch said. "I don't think anybody can tell me how I'll feel the day they pull the lever, but I like to think we're sacrificing one to protect many others."
Testimony from a psychologist who said Strickler has an IQ of 75 and is borderline mentally retarded also had little impact. But the psychologist also said Strickler understands the difference between right and wrong.
"I know people who had just as bad an upbringing who went on to excel and do something with their lives," Ruch said. "I also know people who aren't the smartest people in the world and they've done all right.
"We - each of us - make our own choices in the world. Nobody makes them for us and we are responsible for those choices. He knew the consequences of his actions. He knew what he was doing," he said.
by CNB