Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994 TAG: 9403060149
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINCHESTER LENGTH: Medium
Layne sat emotionless, as he had throughout the trial, when the verdict was read. Moments later he turned and smiled slightly at sobbing relatives in the courtroom.
"How do you feel now?" his daughter, Heather Layne, said to Phadra's mother as she left the courtroom.
"He got what he deserved," Cynthia Layne replied.
Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty when Layne is sentenced Tuesday.
Layne was convicted of taking Phadra, his stepniece, from her mother's home in Rockbridge County on Sept. 18 with the intent to defile her sexually.
He took her to a remote section of Botetourt County and beat her to death with a tire iron. Hours later, he returned to the murder scene, chopped Phadra's legs and bent them back around her head before shoving her 4-foot-7-inch body into a shallow grave 31 inches long.
"Who, but a child molester, could think of Phadra as something that could be stuffed in a hole like that," Botetourt County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Hagan said during closing arguments.
Layne's trial was moved to Winchester because of the intense publicity and public outrage over Phadra's death.
Hagan said he wasn't surprised by the quick verdict in the case.
"I think it just reflects the strength of the state's case," the prosecutor said. "Nothing can bring Phadra back, but now the story of her fate has been told."
Terry Grimes, one of Billy Layne's attorneys, said Layne would appeal his conviction.
Twice during the trial, Layne's criminal record was mentioned by prosecution witnesses. Grimes said that will be the main basis of the appeal.
Layne served less than nine years of a sentence totaling 51 years for burglaries committed in the mid-1980s.
From the trial's outset, Layne's attorneys virtually conceded that he abducted and killed Phadra.
"You may find he's not guilty, but I'd be surprised," Grimes told the jury during closing arguments.
Their main objective was to keep Layne out of the electric chair, by getting the capital murder charge reduced to first- or second-degree murder.
In order to win the capital murder charge - the only crime that warrants the death penalty - prosecutors had to prove that Layne took Phadra with the intent to defile her sexually.
In his closing arguments, Grimes stressed that the state had little evidence to prove sexual misconduct was involved.
There was no physical evidence that the girl was sexually molested, although a DNA expert did testify that skin cells taken from Layne's genitals had characteristics similar to Phadra's. Those characteristics are shared by only about 7 percent of the population.
"No matter how horrible the crime is, suspicion and probability are not enough for a capital murder conviction," Grimes said.
The prosecution's case for sexual intent was bolstered Friday when a former jail inmate testified that Layne said he had sex with Phadra over the Labor Day weekend.
Keith Brewer said Layne told him that he went back to have sex with Phadra again on Sept. 18.
"She resisted him and fought him. That is when he killed her," Layne's former cellmate said.
Eric Sisler, Rockbridge County's commonwealth's attorney, concluded the trial with an emotional, and at times gruesome, closing argument. Several people in the packed courtroom were crying, and Phadra's mother and grandmother had to leave the room.
"This man is an animal. . . . He's a murderer and a molester," he said. "God only knows what he did to that little girl before she was murdered."
Layne did not testify, but he had told police that he went on a drinking binge the weekend Phadra was murdered and couldn't remember what happened.
Sisler told the jury that was just another lie.
"He remembers every single thing that he did to that little girl," the prosecutor said.
Botetourt County Sheriff Reed Kelly testified that Layne told him: "I want to tell you the truth, but I'm afraid."
He told another investigator: "I'm not saying that I didn't do it, but I can't imagine my doing that."
Layne was headed for Tennessee two day's after Phadra was killed when a sheriff's deputy stopped his car and arrested him in Smyth County.
Phadra's body wasn't found for another two days.
Layne's closest family members were upset and outspoken after the verdict was read.
"The thought of killing a child is absurd to him. He loves kids," said Kelly Layne, Billy Layne's daughter.
Kathie Layne, said she believes that her husband was set up by Botetourt County authorities.
"I know he didn't do that," she said. "I've been married to him for 23 years."
by CNB