Friday, September 21, 2007
Morva trial moved
A judge decides that an impartial jury cannot be found in Montgomery Co.
Related
Multimedia
Complete coverage
CHRISTIANSBURG -- In a rare move, a judge decided Thursday to move William Morva's capital murder trial outside Montgomery County.
Morva's trial, in which he will stand accused of shooting and killing two law enforcement officers, will be the first moved out of the county in nearly 30 years.
Judge Ray Grubbs, after presiding over three days of jury selection, waited until after a required pool of potential jurors was filled before making his decision. Grubbs said it was apparent to him that too many in the jury pool had relationships and ties to people involved with the case, which touches some of the major communities in the New River Valley, including law enforcement and Virginia Tech.
Several people in the courtroom, including some of the victims' family members who wanted Morva tried in the county, cried as Grubbs announced his decision.
A new date and location for the trial have not been determined, but county Circuit Court Clerk Allan Burke said the trial could be held in early 2008 and moved west of the county.
When the planned two- to three-week trial moves, the nearly 50 witnesses for the prosecution and nearly 20 for the defense will have to move with it, along with the prosecutors and other court staff, the defense attorneys and 25-year-old Morva.
Of the prosecution witnesses, Commonwealth's Attorney Brad Finch said about 20 are law enforcement officers.
"We understand the need for a change of venue in the interest of fairness," Blacksburg police Capt. Bruce Bradbery said. "We have always and continue to have great respect for Judge Grubbs' court, and we want to have this trial one time."
Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times
William Morva's attorneys had argued for months for a change of venue. The judge's decision to move the trial means witnesses attorneys and other court staff will have to relocate, too.
Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times
The two shooting victims' mothers, Rosalind McFarland (left) and Jeaneen Sutphin, hug Thursday after a judge decided to move the William Morva's capital murder trial out of Montgomery Co.
Video
Photo Gallery
However, Bradbery said, "from a public safety standpoint in Montgomery County, it's going to create some hardships."
At least 10 Blacksburg police officers, including a forensics technician and several members of the Emergency Response Team, received subpoenas, he said.
"That's almost a fifth of our agency that's gone" when the trial is moved, he said.
Montgomery Regional Hospital spokeswoman Suzanne Barnette said she wasn't sure how many hospital employees had been subpoenaed.
"It's still very painful for us," she said, and those who received subpoenas weren't likely to talk about it.
Whatever the number, she said, "we understand the judge's decision and we respect it, and it will not affect our staffing at the hospital or our daily operations at all."
Morva, of Blacksburg, was being held at the county jail on attempted robbery charges when he was taken to Montgomery Regional Hospital the morning of Aug. 20, 2006, to be treated for injuries he suffered in a fall.
He is accused of knocking out the deputy who escorted him, taking his gun and using it to shoot hospital security guard Derrick McFarland.
He is accused of shooting and killing Cpl. Eric Sutphin of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office the next morning on the Huckleberry Trail as Sutphin took part in a manhunt that closed Virginia Tech on its first day of classes.
Morva faces three counts of capital murder and four other charges in connection with the two deaths.
A Montgomery County trial was last moved in 1980, when Buddy Earl Justus was retried in Williamsburg and convicted again of raping and killing an Ironto woman who was nearly nine months pregnant.
"We wanted to have the trial here. Our victims' families wanted to have the trial here," Finch said after Thursday's Morva proceedings. "We'd like to get this case to trial as soon as possible. We want to bring the defendant to justice in court, whether that happens here or whether that happens in another location."
Defense attorney Tony Anderson declined to comment on the move, saying he felt it would be inappropriate.
But Anderson and Morva's other attorneys, Tom Blaylock and Melissa Friedman, have argued for a change of venue for months, saying the jury pool would be tainted by extensive pretrial publicity.
Anderson renewed that motion Thursday, after the previous three days were spent putting together a group of 24 people to make up the jury pool.
Grubbs said that although Morva's case has garnered "the greatest pretrial publicity in the memory of this court," he didn't find it to be misleading or inflammatory and found that a relatively small number of the potential jurors interviewed were biased because of the coverage.
Instead, he said, it was the large number of potential jurors who said they had ties to the case that could cause a jury's verdict, should the case be heard in the county, to be questioned.
Of the 70 Montgomery County citizens who were interviewed as part of jury selection, Grubbs said 22 "had certain relationships through their employment, with respective witnesses, with parties close to the events of August 2006, that could very well affect their impartialities."
Grubbs told the 24 potential jurors who had been chosen that the trial had been moved and excused them from service.
Several witnesses for the prosecution who had been called to the courthouse in anticipation of the trial getting under way Thursday were also excused.
After a two-day trial in March, Morva was sentenced to 38 years in prison for his role in botched attempts to rob one Blacksburg business and steal from two others.
Thomas DeBusk, his attorney in that case, said he was glad to hear Morva's capital murder trial would be moved.
"I guess I'm somewhat pleased on behalf of William because I think that will give him more of an opportunity to find an impartial jury," he said.
In appealing Morva's March convictions, he said, "the main issue we pointed to is the seating of the jury." Most of its members knew too much about Morva's murder charges, he said.
DeBusk said he thinks that, no matter how many jurors are interviewed, enough impartial jurors can't be found in Montgomery County to hear Morva's case.
