Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1993 TAG: 9308040497
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
In a surprise move, Katina Lynn Zelenak, Morehead's former girlfriend and a co-defendant in the murder case, wasn't one of them.
Morehead, 21, of Pulaski County, is on trial this week for the June 1, 1992, shooting death of Lorna Raines Crockett.
Crockett, 32, of Pulaski County, was married and the mother of three boys. She was abducted, robbed and killed as she made a night bank deposit for Shoe Show, the Hill's Plaza store she had managed in Christiansburg for about two weeks.
Crockett made the bank deposit, but her purse was taken and she was shot twice in the head with a .32-caliber handgun. Her body was found June 2 on Falling Branch Road, across the street from the shoe store.
Morehead's trial on charges that he robbed, abducted and killed Crockett got under way Tuesday after a day of jury selection Monday. The trial is expected to end today.
Morehead's first trial in April ended in a mistrial after the court learned that one of the jurors was related to a victim of a Pulaski County robbery that Morehead also is charged with, and because Zelenak, while testifying, made reference to the Pulaski County charges that she and Morehead face.
Morehead also faces charges of attempted robbery and conspiracy to rob Stuart Arbuckle - then a Domino's Pizza store manager who was almost robbed about five hours after Crockett was shot - and two counts of using a firearm to commit a crime.
Arbuckle foiled the robbery attempt, followed his assailants, and called police on his car's cellular telephone. Police stopped Zelenak's car and found two guns - including a .32 caliber handgun.
Keith rested his case after a man who had bunked near Morehead in the Montgomery County Jail told the jury that Morehead had confessed to killing Crockett, saying he put her out of her misery after she had been shot once by another man, William Ray Smith Jr.
"I respect Phil Keith's decision not to call Zelenak," Jeff Rudd, Morehead's attorney, said after court. "Frankly, I think it is a risky move politically more so than it is in terms of trial strategy."
Keith declined to comment on his decision until after the trial.
In testimony at previous hearings, Zelenak has said that Morehead fired the first shot at Crockett after Smith had forced the woman to drive to Falling Branch Road.
Zelenak then heard a second shot she says was fired by Smith.
Smith, 19, of Pulaski County and Zelenak, 21, are serving life terms after pleading no contest to first-degree murder.
Greg Margerum, the man who was in jail with Morehead, testified Tuesday that Morehead told him he had shot Crockett because he couldn't stand to see her suffer.
Margerum, who has been convicted of felony charges of taking indecent liberties with a minor and two charges of obtaining drugs by fraud, said Morehead told him that Smith jumped in the car with Crockett after the robbery attempt.
Margerum said Morehead told him he and Zelenak followed Crockett's car down Falling Branch Road, that after he heard a shot he told Smith to get out of the car, and that he shot Crockett after Smith because he "said he couldn't stand seeing her like that."
by CNB