Thursday, August 28, 2008
Jurors begin deliberations in Radford capital murder trial
Jury members asked to review several pieces of evidence.
Related
Previous coverage
- Jurors hear recorded police interviews with suspect (Aug. 26, 2008)
- Fiancee's testimony ends in Jones trial (Aug. 23, 2008)
- Credibility of witness an issue at murder trial (Aug. 22, 2008)
- Key witness testifies in murder trial (Aug. 21, 2008)
- Capital murder trial to begin in Radford (Aug. 19, 2008)
RADFORD -- Members of the jury who sat through five days of testimony in the capital murder case against James Jones II met behind a closed door for more than two hours Wednesday but were unable to come to a unanimous decision about his guilt.
Shortly after they entered the jury room in Radford Circuit Court about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, after hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and the defense, jurors asked for several pieces of evidence. They included CDs that contain several hours worth of recorded police interviews with Jones and Kelly McKenzie Brubeck, indicating that their deliberations could take a long time.
The jurors can request any of the items that the prosecutor and the defense attorneys entered into evidence during the trial, including the .32-caliber two-shot Derringer used to kill Ken Henry, a 39-year-old man originally from Union City, Tenn.; letters Jones and Brubeck, his former fiancee, wrote to each other in jail; and an aerial photograph of the area of Radford where the shooting took place.
The jury will meet again this morning to continue discussing the evidence.
In addition to the capital murder charge, Jones is charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, using a firearm in the commission of robbery and using a firearm in the commission of murder.
The jury was not given the option of finding Jones guilty of a lesser murder charge, such as first-degree or second-degree murder. If jurors find him guilty of capital murder, there are only two punishment options: life in prison or the death penalty. In Virginia, the premeditated killing of someone during a robbery is a capital offense.
Henry was found bleeding and yelling for help the evening of July 5, 2006, in the parking lot of the Davis Street apartment building where Brubeck lived.
He died of two gunshot wounds, one to the shoulder and one to the neck. He was unable to speak when police and rescue workers arrived, so he didn't get to tell them who shot him.
Jones and Brubeck were the only people with Henry when he was shot. Each says the other shot him.
Brubeck has testified that she set up a drug deal with Henry to lure him to the apartment to rob him. She said she watched as Jones shot Henry and robbed him of cash and drugs. The killing wasn't planned, she said.
Jones testified Tuesday that he had no idea why Henry was at the apartment. He said he awoke to find Brubeck and Henry arguing and saw her shoot him.
Each has testified that after Henry was shot, he got up and walked out the front door.
"He would have been our best witness," Radford Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Rehak said during his closing argument.
He said Brubeck may have lied in the past about what happened, but that she came to court to tell the truth.
He noted that one witness testified Tuesday that Brubeck and Jones went to her apartment right after Henry was shot. She said she heard Brubeck tell Jones to go back and get the gun because her fingerprints were on it, but Jones refused.
Rehak told jurors Brubeck must have said that because only Jones knew where the gun was.
He told them they didn't have to be positive that Jones killed Henry to convict him.
"Remember," he said, "it's reasonable doubt, not ridiculous doubt. It's not beyond a shadow of a doubt."
"This whole case rises and falls on the believability of Kelly Lance," defense attorney Jimmy Turk told jurors.
When Henry was killed, Brubeck was married and went by the name Lance. She has since divorced and is using her maiden name.
Turk told jurors they can't believe anything Brubeck has said because her story has changed so many times.
"She wouldn't know the truth if it were tattooed on her forehead," he said.
Brubeck first told police, her mother, a neighbor and others that she shot Henry as he tried to rob her. Several days after the shooting, she said Jones was the one who killed him.
At first she said she had nothing to do with it, but later she said she had invited him to the apartment.
Rehak has told jurors that Brubeck lied because she was deeply in love with Jones. The pair had been romantically involved for about five months before the killing. Brubeck has a tattoo with Jones' name on her thigh. Jones said she has other men's names tattooed on her as well.
Turk reminded jurors that they had heard recorded interviews with Brubeck, whom he described as "an exotic dancer, a prostitute and a drug dealer," in which she swore to God and on the lives of her two children that she had shot Henry.
"She simply doesn't care," he said. "This case boils down to her."
Brubeck is also charged in connection with Henry's killing, but with the lesser crime of second-degree murder, which is punishable by five to 40 years in prison.











