ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Cameras will be allowed in the courtroom when two brothers and their 19-year-old friend face a hearing on charges that they murdered a Virginia Tech student after his abduction from a local convenience store.
The defense lawyer's unsuccessful argument to exclude cameras, however, gave insight to likely defense strategies he will use in selecting a jury to hear the case.
Christopher Tuck, one of two lawyers for Benjamin L. Lilly, 27, argued Wednesday that newspaper and television cameras would harm his client's chance to seat an impartial jury.
Lilly, his brother Mark Anthony Lilly, 20, and Gary Wayne Barker, 19, all of Montgomery County, face murder and related charges for the Dec. 5 slaying of Alexander DeFilippis, a 22-year-old Virginia Tech student. DeFilippis was killed after he was carjacked at a Blacksburg convenience store.
A preliminary hearing is set for Feb .19 in Montgomery County General District Court.
Tuck told Judge John Quigley that pictures of his client in jail clothing and shackles at the preliminary hearing - and television sound bites of prosecution witnesses - would be detrimental to his case.
"This isn't what the public needs to see," Tuck argued.
Tuck said the defense hopes Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubbs will allow them to exclude from the jury pool Tech students, professors, employees and anyone else who has an economic interest in the university.
With television stations airing sound bites and photos, Tuck said, the jury pool would be further reduced.
Camera coverage "increases our publicity and increases the chance we'll have to move this trial to another jurisdiction," he argued. "Please, we don't need any more publicity about this case ... We're talking about a man's life."
If convicted of capital murder, Benjamin Lilly could face the death penalty.
Stan Barnhill, a lawyer representing The Roanoke Times, said previous state and federal court rulings giving the press - and cameras - access to the courts apply to preliminary matters as well as to the trial itself.
Virginia's statute allowing the media to have cameras in the courtroom also includes provisions to ensure that those cameras don't disrupt the preliminary hearing, he said.
Cameras have been in Montgomery County courtrooms before without disrupting proceedings or causing a problem with seating a jury, Barnhill said.
Skip Schwab, assistant commonwealth's attorney, said the matter was one for the judge's discretion, but noted that there would be television and newspaper coverage of the hearing, whether cameras were there or not.
"There may not be pictures [inside the courtroom] but that doesn't mean there won't be publicity," Schwab said.
Schwab also took issue with Tuck's wish that those connected to Tech should be excluded from the pool of potential jurors.
"It is not about Virginia Tech. It is about the murder of a young man" who happened to be a student, he said. "It didn't happen at Tech."
Quigley agreed that until it is proven that camera coverage causes a problem in seating the jury, cameras would be allowed.
The judge took under advisement Tuck's motion to allow Lilly to wear civilian clothes during the preliminary hearing. He said he'd make a ruling by today after consulting with the Sheriff's Office about security, and with the lawyers of the other two defendants, who would likely want the same concessions.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB