THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 3, 1995 TAG: 9506030281
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY AND MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Sixteen-year-old Marvin Owens was convicted Friday of capital murder for killing his grandmother, half-brother and two cousins last summer, making him the state's youngest mass murderer.
Owens, who will turn 17 on June 17, faces a possible death sentence. If condemned to die, he will become the youngest inmate on Virginia's death row.
``No 16-year-old in Virginia yet has been sentenced to death, and we'll be bringing that up,'' said B. Thomas Reed, one of two attorneys who represented Owens. He will ask that his client be given life in prison. If sentenced to life, Owens could be eligible for parole in 30 years.
Prosecutors plan to ask for the death penalty in a hearing Monday before Circuit Judge Robert B. Cromwell Jr. Owens' case must meet at least one of two legal standards: that the crimes were ``vile'' or that Owens would pose a future danger if his life were spared. Prosecutors will argue that both standards apply.
After a two-week trial, jurors deliberated about three hours Friday before convicting Owens of one count of capital murder for killing multiple victims and one count of first-degree murder in the death of his 19-year-old cousin, Clifton Harper. He also was found guilty of four firearms charges and robbery.
In addition to Harper, Owens' victims were Evelyn Ward, his 63-year-old grandmother and one-time legal guardian; Thelma Harper, 37, another cousin; and Robert L. Ward Jr., his 14-year-old half-brother.
If Owens receives the death penalty, he will replace Douglas Christopher Thomas as the youngest felon on death row.
On Nov. 21, 1991, Thomas became the first teenager sentenced to death in Virginia in modern times for the shotgun slaying of his girlfriend's parents in Middlesex County. He was 17 at the time of the crime.
The last teenager executed in Virginia was a 19-year-old Roanoke man in 1946. No 18-year-old has been put to death for almost six decades.
Testifying in his own defense Thursday, Owens said he accidentally shot Clifton Harper, known as Pop, when he was showing him the gun. Owens said he dropped the gun and called 911, but was interrupted when a man named Dee picked up the gun, pointed it at him and told him to get out.
But Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys told the jurors in his closing argument Friday that if Owens' trial had been a TV movie, it could have been titled, ``A Parade of Lies: The Marvin Owens Stories.''
During the trial, Humphreys hammered on the 15 versions that Owens, in a 7 1/2-hour videotaped interview with police, told of the events of July 22. That was the day of the quadruple slaying in a house on Seaboard Road - one of two quadruple slayings in the city last summer. When Owens took the stand, he told a 16th story, Humphreys said.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Janee Joslin provided the prosecution's theory for the killings. She said Owens went to the house intending to rob Harper, a known cocaine dealer, and then killed everyone there.
``His motive: $1,200 and no witnesses,'' she said. ``He was deliberate, methodical and devoid of emotion. His hands never shook. This is about murder to cover up robbery and lies to cover both.''
Joslin asked jurors to remember the testimony of the family friend who said she dropped Owens off at the house by himself and about his lie to her that no one was home.
If Owens' final version of the story is to be believed, she asked, how could Owens have known so many details about the victims?
``How is it that the defendant can explain in intricate detail the positioning of each body?'' she asked. ``. . . He knew because he was there. He was there for each and every gunshot because he and he alone pulled the trigger.''
Reed, who represented Owens along with co-counsel Cynthia D. Barnaby, reminded the jurors that the victims' blood was not found on Owens' clothes, that he had no history of juvenile violence and that no bitterness existed between Owens and the slain family members.
``Marvin Owens is a 16-year-old who has precious little going for him except that he is a street dealer of cocaine,'' Reed said. ``It gives him money, it gives him status, it gives him cars, it gives him friends.''
Reed told the jurors they should reject the theory that Owens went to the Seaboard Road house ``to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.''
The $1,200 taken in the robbery was a small amount of money in the world of cocaine street sales, Reed argued.
``Marvin can make that kind of money in a couple of nights,'' he said. ``$1,200 is not a motive to kill your family.''
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL CONVICTION GUILTY VERDICT < by CNB