ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 30, 1996 TAG: 9607300074
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
One hundred forty potential jurors, more than 40 potential witnesses, seven defendants, seven defense attorneys and one commonwealth's attorney.
These numbers reflect just some of people involved in a unique "joinder" trial beginning today in Giles County Circuit Court where seven people will be tried at one time, but for varying combinations of charges stemming from a massive brawl seven months ago.
Commonwealth's Attorney Garland Spangler requested the joint trial citing "judicial economy" as the reason for the melding of the cases.
Judge Dow Owens agreed despite motions by several of the defense attorneys to have their clients' cases heard separately. Some of the defense attorneys said they feared that an apparent "guilt by association" will taint jurors' perceptions of evidence presented against individual defendants.
The simple fact that 12 jurors and two alternates will have to follow and keep separate the evidence presented against seven different people, six of whom are first cousins, could present problems, the attorneys argue.
Defense attorney Joe Painter said the case is going to be "a logistical nightmare."
Spangler said the case began on Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 28, when two parties were being held two blocks apart in the Bunker Hill section of Pearisburg. Within minutes, an argument between party goers escalated into an all-out brawl involving people from both parties.
When the two-minute fight ended, one man was flown to a Roanoke hospital and two others were seriously wounded, Spangler said.
Of the seven adults arrested, six had charges of breaking and entering certified to the Circuit Court grand jury. Most were directly indicted for malicious wounding by mob, though some were immune to that charge because they were found guilty of the lesser charge of assault and battery in General District Court.
"All of the facts will be just identical," Spangler said of his reasoning for the joinder trial. "We feel like the jury will be able to keep up with it."
Bobby Lilly, another defense attorney, disagreed during a hearing July 12. "We have a great risk of chaos and confusion resulting from having multiple defendants all of whom are facing slightly different" charges, he said.
Scarlet Buckland Ratcliffe, clerk of the circuit court, said this is the first time in her 30 years of work at the courthouse that she recalls a joinder criminal jury trial. There have been co-defendants tried for the same crime - typically referred to as companion trials, but never anything of this magnitude, she said. Ratcliffe said she consulted Sara Munsey, a deputy clerk, who has worked in the office since the early 1950s and she agreed that nothing of this natures has been attempted.
Needless to say, the case has presented hurdles never before jumped by this team of legal officials.
Ratcliffe said the initial cost alone is staggering for a single trial. Each person called for jury duty gets $30 a day paid by the county - that's $4,200 just for the first day of jury selection. To help speed jury selection, Ratcliffe sent each juror a survey to fill out; the postage cost a couple hundred dollars.
"Plus it's taken up 75 percent of my time the last two weeks," Ratcliffe said.
Ratcliffe said she's unsure whether they will be able to get a jury selected the first day because so many of the people in the pool will be eliminated because of their relation to people in the case.
The jury pool is made up of spouses of witnesses, others are legal secretaries for lawyers in the case and still more are spouses of legal officials.
That includes the commonwealth's attorney's wife.
Ratcliffe said she is making badges for each juror, another first. She expressed some sympathy for the work the chosen jurors will have to do.
"How are they going to keep it all straight?" she wondered.
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