DATE: Tuesday, March 11, 1997               TAG: 9703110279

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   79 lines

DYING VICTIM'S WORDS LED POLICE TO SUSPECTED KILLER

Bleeding and weak from a half-dozen knife wounds to her chest, head and neck, Beatrice L. Jefferson uttered three words to police just before she died on her front porch - ``Cross did it.''

That testimony from a police officer Monday led a General District Court judge to certify a murder charge to the grand jury against Earl Jacob Cross, 58, a man with a history of violence dating back nearly four decades.

The judge also heard a dispatcher's dramatic testimony about the early morning 911 call from Jefferson's home in the 100 block of Greenwood Drive on Feb. 15.

The dispatcher said a female caller told her someone had come into her home. As the dispatcher tried to talk to the caller, she heard a male voice in the background asking questions, she testified.

She heard the sounds of a struggle, the dispatcher said, and then heard the man ask the female caller if she was with another man. As the dispatcher tried to talk to the caller, there were several attempts to hang up the phone, she testified.

``I just kept hearing her saying, `Earl, stop, don't do that,''' the dispatcher said.

In matter-of-fact tone of voice, the man then threatened to kill the female caller, the dispatcher testified.

Cross, who is being held in the city jail without bond, could face life in prison if he is convicted of the slaying of the 38-year-old mother of four.

When police arrived at Jefferson's home, she was suffering from multiple stab wounds. She had six wounds to her chest, including one that punctured her lung, prosecutors said. She also had five stab wounds to her head and neck. Jefferson had numerous other cuts and lacerations to her head and neck, in addition to 40 other cuts and superficial scratches to her hands.

As she lay dying on her front porch, an officer who bent down to help her testified that she told him, ``Cross did it.''

Jefferson's 17-year-old daughter testified that her family knew Cross but did not elaborate on the relationship that existed between Cross and her mother.

``We have sufficient evidence'' to send the case to a grand jury, Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Michael J. Massie said. ``In her dying declaration. .

But defense attorney Michael Rosenberg argued that there was no physical evidence, such as fingerprints, linking Cross to the murder. Prosecutors also did not present any evidence of a motive, he said.

``We have no physical evidence whatsoever,'' Rosenberg said in asking for a dismissal of the charges.

However, substitute General District Judge Gregory M. Pomije said the hearing Monday was to find probable cause to present the case to the April grand jury, which will decide whether to indict Cross. Prosecutors did not have to present all of their evidence at this stage of the court proceedings, he said.

Cross has a violent history dating to 1958, when he was charged with felony assault with a pitchfork, according to news stories. No details of that case were available.

In 1966, Cross was charged and convicted in three violent incidents.

In one, he raped and robbed a 45-year-old woman. In another, he knifed a 16-year-old boy and tried to rape the boy's mother at a city dump. In another, Cross robbed a pizzeria by threatening to shoot the manager. Juries sentenced him to a total of 33 years in prison in the three cases.

Cross was released from prison in 1976, having served 10 years.

One year later, he was charged with raping and slaying a Portsmouth woman. He was acquitted by a jury.

In 1977, he was convicted of grand larceny for stealing hams from a Smithfield meat-packing plant and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Corrections officials said last month their records indicated that Cross was paroled again in 1983.

In 1984, Cross stabbed his wife, Thelma, 15 times in Chesapeake. Police charged Cross with malicious wounding, and a jury convicted him of unlawful wounding in 1986. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

Last year, he was paroled and released from Corrections Department supervision, officials said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Murder charges against Earl J. Cross will go to a grand jury, a

judge decided Monday after dramatic testimony. KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST STABBING

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