THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509140351
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
A few days before his murder on Halloween 1992, convenience store manager James Harris received a death threat from a man he had fired for allegedly taking money, a former security guard testified Wednesday at the murder trial of Donald Marcus.
It is the first time in the two years of trials for Marcus and his co-defendants, Brian McCray and Denaldo Hill, that a jury has heard testimony about another set of suspects that police looked into as Harris' possible killers.
On Wednesday, Julie Hixson - a former security guard at the Jr. Market on Westminster Avenue - testified that she was at the store a day or two before the murder when she witnessed the confrontation between Harris and the former employee she called Jerome.
Previous testimony from store employees and owners identified the man as Jerome Holley, who had been fired by Harris for money shortages and poor performance.
``Jerome came in, very upset that he'd been fired,'' Hixson testified. ``He told James he was going to get him, he hadn't heard the last of it, he was going to kill him.'' Hixson said that while she couldn't remember the exact day it happened, she recalled the incident clearly.
``Jerome'' was so upset that he had to be escorted from the store by her former husband, another security guard, Hixson said.
``One or two days later, I saw it (the murder) on the news,'' Hixson testified. ``I called 911.''
This is the second time Marcus has been tried in Harris' murder. In May, Marcus' former attorney, Jon Babineau, told jurors during opening statements of the first trial that police ignored crucial evidence implicating other suspects because they already had fingered Marcus, McCray and Hill as the prime suspects.
However, Marcus and Babineau had a falling-out on the second day of that trial and Judge Alfred Whitehurst declared a mistrial. Thus jurors never heard any testimony.
Marcus' current attorney, Michael Fasanaro, did not ask Hixson whether she was interviewed by detectives. Unlike Babineau, Fasanaro has not been overtly critical of the police investigation. Instead, he has attempted to chip away at the credibility of the state's witnesses while Richard Grizzard - the Southampton County commonwealth's attorney appointed special prosecutor for all three trials - has attempted to do the same to defense witnesses.
Before May, attorneys for McCray and Hill did not introduce this evidence of the other suspects. When asked about it, they said they believed the evidence would be inadmissible under law.
Then, in May, Babineau opened a new phase in the saga of the three defendants when he told jurors about the other suspects and said that Holley threatened to kill Harris after getting fired for stealing money.
At the time, Grizzard tried to block Babineau from telling jurors about Jerome Holley, but Whitehurst overruled him. ``There were other facts that they (the police) learned and deep-sixed - that they didn't look at, didn't care about,'' Babineau said then.
Babineau also said that Holley's older brother, Adrian, approached a witness a few months before the murder and asked him to help rob the store.
``They would go at the end of the month or the first of the month when the receipts were best,'' Babineau said then. ``They would take Harris' gun, then flee down the railroad tracks towards the Ingleside neighborhood,'' where one of the brothers lived. The actual robbery followed this plan, and Harris' handgun, which he wore in a holster, was stolen. A 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun like the one used in the murder was later found in a creek by Ingleside.
This witness has been subpoenaed by Fasanaro, but it was unclear Wednesday whether he would be called to testify today. Detectives, concerned about his safety, have asked that his identity remain anonymous. During the May trial, there was talk that the courtroom would be cleared and that the witness would wear a mask during his testimony.
Neither Jerome nor Adrian Holley has been charged with Harris' killing, but they have been named as suspects in court records since Marcus and his co-defendants were arrested in February 1993. Detectives themselves were divided over which set of suspects killed Harris.
In August 1993, McCray was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 43 years in prison. But a November 1993 story in The Virginian-Pilot showed that the case was based on the changing testimony of teenager Larry Edwards - who testified he saw the three outside the store - and tainted by the prosecutors' suppression of evidence. That December, Whitehurst declared a mistrial.
The November 1993 newspaper story quoted police documents about the other suspects but did not name the Holleys. Detectives' notes said that on Nov. 1, 1992 - one day after the murder - a woman told police about a man who had been fired who ``stated he was going to kill James and that there was bad blood between them.''
Another woman told detectives that the same suspect felt Harris was blocking his promotion. He ``stated several times that James was going to get his one day,'' the notes said. This statement has never been entered in court.
In May 1994, McCray was acquitted in a second trial. Two weeks later a jury convicted Hill and recommended life plus 80 years - a sentence that Whitehurst upheld.
Marcus has maintained his innocence from the start, refusing prosecutors' plea agreements and asking for a jury trial. On Wednesday, he testified that he was with his girlfriend and her child when the murder occurred.
Lawyers indicated that testimony would probably end today and the jury might begin deliberations. ILLUSTRATION: Donald Marcus
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL by CNB