Motions filed in murder case

Defense attorneys for Paul Powell, who will face a second capital murder trial in January for a 1999 attack upon two Yorkshire sisters, brought multiple motions to Prince William Circuit Court on Monday.

Defense attorneys Mark B. William and Carroll A. Weimer Jr. sought to exclude portions of testimony that surviving victim Kristie Reed may give during the new trial.



'She came home, she saw [her sister's] body, she saw Mr. Powell. We believe her testimony should stop there,' said William. 'To have her talk about what happened to her goes to prior bad acts. [Powell] is already serving time for that. Because of the nature of what happened to her... [it might] inflame the jury against Mr. Powell.'

Powell was convicted in May 2000 of raping and stabbing Kristie Reed, then 14, and murdering her older sister Stacie, 16. Powell is serving multiple sentences in relation to those crimes.

A death sentence was overturned in April 2001 by the Virginia Supreme Court. Justices ruled that Prince William prosecutors erred when they charged Powell with capital murder. They said the evidence at best supported a charge of first-degree murder because prosecutors were unable to prove that Powell had committed rape or robbery during the murder.

A Prince William grand jury indicted Powell with capital murder again in December 2001, after Powell sent Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert a letter detailing the events of Jan. 29, 1999. Powell wrote that he raped Stacie before he killed her, raising the crime to the level of a capital murder charge. Smoking and sipping iced tea, he waited for the younger Reed sister, Kristie, to come home from school. He raped her before stabbing her in the stomach and throat.

Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert argued all of Kristie Reed's testimony was 'interwoven' and could not be divided as the defense suggested. Judge Herman A. Whisenant Jr. ruled that all of Reed's testimony is admissible in January.

The defense presented a second motion to suppress evidence from an interview Lieutenant Richard J. Leonard of the Prince William County Sheriff's Office held with Powell after Ebert received Powell's letter. Leonard, a detective with the Prince William County Police Department at the time of the interview, spoke with Powell at Sussex I State Prison in Waverly. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney James A. Willett called Leonard to the stand.

In response to questions from Willet and Weimer, Leonard said that Powell had signed a form waiving his rights of silence and counsel during the interview. During the following discussion of the letter's contents, Leonard said that Powell had not appeared affected by two medications he said he was taking. Leonard testified that Powell had not been coerced, and that while their conversation could have been monitored, he was unaware if it had been.

Judge Whisenant denied the motion to suppress the interview.

The defense also entered a request to move Powell's upcoming trial. William explained filing of the motion was in anticipation of a request they expect to make when a jury is sought. Whisenant will rule on the change of venue at that time.

Powell, who had requested not to be present at pretrial motions, sat hunched over the table with his attorneys during the Monday morning proceedings.

William's last request of the day was an order from Whisenant transferring Powell's personal belongings from Sussex I State Prison to the Prince William County-Manassas regional jail. Whisenant agreed, though he added that Powell's housing and travel plans were decisions made by jail officials.



Staff writer Maria Hegstad can be reached at (703) 368-3101, Ext. 121.