Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991 TAG: 9103280415
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF/ STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The jury in Becky King's murder trial did not hear the testimony, however.
Danny King also has said he has a second personality he calls "The Deacon," which has to be put "back in his place" on occasion, the testimony showed.
Becky King thought they were looking for a house to buy last Oct. 11 when she called Carolyn Horton Rogers under an assumed name and asked to see the $160,000 house on Foxcroft Circle where Rogers was stabbed to death, Danny King told his wife's defense attorneys and a third person in November.
The third person - George Harris III - testified Wednesday in the third day of Becky King's trial.
Judge Kenneth Trabue is expected to decide today whether to allow the jury to hear Harris, the son of General District Judge George Harris and a recent law school graduate awaiting the results of his bar exam.
Defense attorneys for Becky King first had called Danny King as a witness Wednesday. But on advice from his attorneys, King invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself and refused to testify.
Afterward, Trabue agreed to hear Harris' third-hand testimony and decide whether he legally could allow the jury to hear it.
Harris said he accompanied Becky King's attorneys, Vince Lilley and Jack Gregory, to the Buckingham Correctional Center to interview Danny King. At the time, Danny King had not been charged in Rogers' slaying.
King now faces the death penalty and his wife faces two life sentences in the robbing and killing of Rogers. Danny King's trial is set for June.
Harris testified that Danny King's first words to him were, "Let's cut the bull----. I stabbed Carolyn Rogers to death and Becky didn't have anything to do with it."
King, in a November telephone interview with the Roanoke Times & World-News, had denied any involvement in Rogers' death.
But King told Harris that he had decided to "pick up a paper" - agree to perform a contract killing for pay - in the Roanoke Valley. King said he worked through a motorcycle gang and through contacts in Portsmouth and Roanoke to obtain the contract, Harris said.
King "stated over and over Becky didn't know what was going on and didn't deserve any punishment," he said.
Harris said Danny King demonstrated how he killed Carolyn Rogers while Becky King was outside the house getting a cigarette.
King said he grabbed Rogers around the neck from behind, punched her in the side of her head, grabbed her around the throat and slammed her to the floor, Harris said.
King then "had a bad feeling" and decided he didn't want to kill the Mastin Kirkland Bolling Inc. real estate agent after all, Harris said. He would put Rogers in a closet, then leave the house and hope she couldn't identify him.
But as he dragged Rogers toward the closet in the basement, Rogers apparently thought he was going to rape her, King told Harris.
Rogers reached up and grabbed King in the genitals and squeezed, Harris said. When King could not free himself, he reached into his boot for a knife, stabbed Rogers in the chest and she fell to the ground.
King's statement to Harris corroborated much of his wife's statements to authorities.
Both Kings have said that Becky King returned to the house to find that her bigamist husband had killed Rogers. Both said she questioned Danny King and that he told her, "You're the nurse, go check her pulse." Becky King had worked as a nursing assistant at a Montgomery County nursing home.
Both Kings said the two stopped at the Ironto rest area on Interstate 81 after the killing and that Danny King had threatened to kill Becky King and her family if she ever discussed what she had seen.
Danny King told Harris that his second personality took over at the rest area. "The Deacon wanted him to kill her because she was a witness," Harris said. But Danny King couldn't do it. "He said he had to put The Deacon back in his place."
Harris said Danny King said he was admitting his guilt because "he could take any punishment that came to him, but she didn't have anything to do with it."
After hearing Harris' testimony, Trabue questioned prosecutors and defense attorneys about whether the Kings could have been in contact with each other since their arrest.
Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart told Trabue he could not say whether the Kings had communicated by telephone, letter or through a third party.
Burkart objected to allowing the jury to hear Harris' testimony.
But the judge said, "The law is clear in Virginia. If there is a ring of trustworthiness . . . for me, the court, it ought to come in."
Trabue said he would allow the attorneys to research the law Wednesday night before ruling this morning on whether to allow the testimony.
The prosecution ended its case Wednesday afternoon after a final day of testimony from forensic experts and police officers.
The trial is expected to continue through Friday.
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by CNB