DATE: Thursday, November 20, 1997           TAG: 9711200474

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  113 lines

FAILED PLEA-BARGAIN PLAN BENEFITS SUSPECT THIS TIME

Just before the murder case against Alfonzo Bailey went to the jury, Bailey's attorney approached prosecutors to see if they would consider a deal: a guilty plea with a maximum 28-year sentence.

But the slain victim's widow, Jo Purnell, told prosecutors she didn't want a deal. She was convinced the jury would give him a longer sentence.

Her plan backfired. Bailey was acquitted Tuesday afternoon. Now Bailey - identified in court by his two alleged accomplices as the triggerman in Edward ``Bud'' Purnell's slaying - is free of the murder charges, and Jo Purnell feels the justice system failed.

Purnell was slain Sept. 8, 1996, after robbers followed him home from a convenience store, shot him and stole his wallet. Jo Purnell, awakened by screaming, ran from her Hilltop apartment to find her husband shot in the parking lot.

When the case went to the jury, she was confident she would finally have the peace she longed for, the peace she said could only come with the accused triggerman behind bars for the rest of his life.

Now she blames herself for the acquittal.

``I said no to the deal. It's my (fault),'' Purnell said, weeping after hearing the verdict Tuesday night. ``Now I have to live with this, and I don't want to. . . . How could the jury have found him not guilty? . . . I didn't see this coming or I'd have grabbed'' the guilty plea.

Bailey's attorney, William P. Robinson Jr. III, said Wednesday that Purnell shouldn't blame herself for thwarting the negotiating process. He was merely beginning negotiations when he proposed the guilty plea and Bailey might not have agreed to the deal.

``I wanted to know what their best deal would be,'' Robinson said. ``I would have had to have a serious discussion with my client, and his mother had already said no deals prior to the trial.''

Prosecutors in the case were not available for comment Wednesday.

It was the second time in less than a month that Bailey was acquitted of murder charges in the face of apparently strong evidence against him. In October, he was acquitted in the shooting death of Lonnie Glenn III.

Glenn, 17, was killed on May 18, 1993, in a drug-related shooting near his home in Brambleton. As he died in his mother's arms, Glenn identified Bailey, then 22, as the shooter.

Robinson acknowledged that the evidence against Bailey was strong in both cases. But, he said, there was reasonable doubt, and there were holes in the evidence in each case that he was able to point out to the jury.

Still, it was the strength of that evidence that led him to begin negotiating with prosecutors Friday. Key evidence included the testimony of two co-defendants and another man who, in a videotaped statement, all implicated Bailey as the triggerman. In addition, police stopped Bailey and two other men in a car with the murder weapon a few days after Purnell's slaying.

Robinson argued that plea agreements made by the two co-defendants undermined their credibility. Also, Bailey had an alibi, a girlfriend who said he was with her the night of the murder.

In addition, an inmate housed with one of Bailey's co-defendants also testified that the co-defendant told him he shot Purnell. Robinson said he believes the inmate's testimony was pivotal.

In the Norfolk case, despite the victim's dying statement that ``Zo shot me,'' Robinson was able to convince the jury that the victim was wrong in his identification.

During and after the shooting, there were a lot of people milling about on Reeves Street. That could have caused confusion, he said. And the victim's brother said the shooter had gold teeth, which Bailey did not. There were also problems with evidence - the murder weapon, a rifle, was never recovered, and Bailey was not carrying a rifle that night, evidence showed.

``It shows these jurors are able to distinguish and refine the evidence,'' Robinson said of the cases.

Bailey did not walk free after Tuesday's acquittal. He remains in jail, facing carjacking charges in Virginia Beach. But Robinson said he would ask for a bond hearing now that Bailey has been acquitted of murder charges in both cases.

Robinson said the odds are slim that an innocent man could be wrongly charged in three violent crimes, but added that his client hangs with the wrong crowd.

``The problem is his chosen associates have not been good for him,'' Robinson said.

Robinson gave his condolences to Jo Purnell after the trial, saying he considered her husband's death a tragedy.

Despite that, Jo Purnell said she remains angry with Robinson, a state delegate, for delaying the trial by using legislative privilege.

She went to state Sen. Ken Stolle to complain after Robinson didn't show up for one hearing because he had legislative business in Richmond. Robinson has a reputation for overusing that privilege.

Stolle plans to propose a new law to monitor the use of legislative privilege, which allows lawyer-legislators to delay court cases in order to resolve state business. Jo Purnell plans to testify in Richmond in support of Stolle's bill.

``Frustrated is not the word,'' Jo Purnell said of the experience. ``Each time I go to court, it's like my husband has died and I have to bury him all over again.''

She said her husband's violent death and the trial have left her devastated.

The jury's verdict brought her anguish, not peace, she said.

``I feel like I've let Bud down,'' she said. ``My family is so upset. How do I tell my son, who's already sick worrying about me? How do I tell my granddaughter when she gets older? I don't know how I can live with this.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Jo Purnell takes the blame for letting the suspected killer of her

husband off. She turned down a proposed deal late in the process.

Slain: Edward ``Bud'' Purnell

Acquitted: Alfonzo Bailey KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL SENTENCING

ACQUITTAL

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