Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 28, 1994 TAG: 9405310159
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Morehead's lawyer, Jeff Rudd of Roanoke, recently filed documents with the state Court of Appeals, laying out five reasons why Morehead's conviction should be overturned.
A Montgomery County jury last August sentenced him to life in prison plus 44 years after convicting him of the June 1992 robbery and murder of Lorna Raines Crockett, 32, of Pulaski County, who managed the Shoe Show in Christiansburg, and the attempted robbery of a Blacksburg pizza parlor manager.
After making a night deposit at a branch bank near the store, Crockett was robbed of her purse, forced to drive a short distance away, then shot to death.
A few hours later, someone attempted to rob Stuart Arbuckle as he made a night deposit at a Blacksburg bank. Arbuckle followed a car out of the bank parking lot, called 911 on his cellular phone and identified three people in the car as the ones who tried to rob him.
The other two defendants, Katina Lynn Zelenak and William Ray Smith Jr., also received life sentences after being convicted of the murder and attempted robbery.
Among the reasons Rudd cites in asking that Morehead's conviction be overturned are the judge's failure to grant a change of venue and his failure to separate the Crockett murder trial and the Arbuckle attempted robbery trial.
Rudd also claims there was insufficient evidence that Morehead participated in the robbery or killing of Crockett.
There was no conclusive evidence to prove who killed Crockett. Smith maintains that Morehead fired both shots, Morehead says Smith was the trigger man, and Zelenak says each man fired a shot. She also said she was forced to drive the car.
A Montgomery County jail inmate also testified that Morehead told him he shot Crockett dead because he couldn't stand to see her suffer after she was shot by Smith.
But each was convicted of Crockett's murder under a law that finds participants in an event that leads to a crime - in this case the robbery - equally responsible for the results.
by CNB