Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 6, 1990 TAG: 9007060441
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
During the hourlong hearing in Pulaski County Circuit Court, attorneys for both sides hinted for the first time how they may handle portions of the case, which has not been set for trial.
Akers' attorneys - Cynthia Dodge of the Pulaski County Public Defender's Office and local lawyer Frank Terwilliger - indicated that a portion of their case may try to show that paints and lacquers Akers had worked with while living in Texas may have caused brain damage or mental problems.
Dodge asked Circuit Judge A. Dow Owens if investigator John M. Kellam, of the public defender's office, could go to Texas, where Akers had lived for 11 years. Kellam testified that he plans to interview Akers' former employers, as well as family, friends, police officers and court officials.
Owens granted the motion, allowing Kellam to go to Texas for at least two weeks, but said he was doing so only because of the seriousness of the charge.
Akers, 30, is charged with capital murder and rape in the slaying of 26-year-old Melanie Sue Davis, whose partly clothed body was found Oct. 18 in the woods behind the Fairlawn water tower off U.S. 11. Her throat had been cut.
Akers was arrested the next day after giving a statement to Sheriff's Department investigators.
Commonwealth's Attorney Everett Shockley hinted Thursday that he has not ruled out seeking the death penalty if Akers is convicted.
But in his arguments, he said that if Akers was convicted, he would consider vileness of the crime and Akers' "future dangerousness" before trying to prove that Akers should be sentenced to death.
Dodge made a motion for Shockley to turn over evidence he plans to use to prove that. But Shockley argued that because that information is used in the penalty phase of the trial, he did not have to turn it over to the defense.
Owens took the motion under advisement.
Thursday's hearing was actually scheduled as a daylong suppression hearing, in which Dodge and Terwilliger would have asked Owens to suppress Akers' statement to police the day after Davis' death.
That hearing was postponed to Aug. 22 because Shockley said he was not given sufficient notice of the hearing.
by CNB