“What did he have to say?” Stark asked.
“He told me that he took the car and that he had shot the young girl.” Scott said that Pernell told him he needed to dispose of the car and Scott told him he had a friend who could get rid of it for him. On Sunday night, Scott said, he sold the car at Midlothian Village to Alphonso Brown. “The deal was for five-hundred dollars. He didn’t have any at the time, so he gave me twenty-five dollars worth of coke and told me that he would give the rest of the money to me later.”
“Well, now, did he give the money to you exclusively, or to Pernell, or how was the money divvied up, if at all?”
“The money never was divvied up because he never paid,” Scott said.
“Alphonso never paid. You did get the quarter of coke, did you not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And who got that?”
“I asked Pernell did he want some and he said no.”
“Did Pernell indicate to you that he wanted any part of the proceeds?”
“No, he said he didn’t want none of it.”
“All right. Were you ever inside of the Three-hundred ZX?”
“Yes, sir.”
“When did you get in it?”
“When I was showing it to Alphonso.”
“Were you wearing gloves on that occasion?”
“No, sir.”
“How about Pernell, was he wearing gloves?”
“Yes, sir. He had gloves and a Windex bottle.”
“Excuse me?”
“A Windex bottle.”
“He had gloves and what?”
“A Windex bottle.”
“What was he doing with that?”
“I do not know, sir.”
Scott testified that he did not see Pernell again until “a couple of days later” when Pernell told him he needed to move Jeannie’s body.
“Why you?” Stark asked.
“Because I was the one that gentlemanly went down there with him to Chesapeake,” Scott answered. “I was scared but he told me once I did this, I would no longer be involved, my name would never be brought up in it.”
“So, you figured if you went and moved the body, that that would somehow clear you of any involvement?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you go?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who went? Just you and Pernell?”
“No, sir. It was Pernell, Mike and myself.”
“Mike Savin?”
“Yes, sir.”
Scott testified that it was dark when the three arrived at the site in a car Pernell had borrowed from a fellow employee at Remco, and he and Pernell got out of the car. “He told Mike to turn the car around, come back in a few seconds. At that time, I followed Pernell into a wooded area. We came upon a body that had a camouflage net over top of it with lime thrown on top of it.”
“Did you have anything to put the body in?”
“Yes, sir. Pernell took a sheet from the car when we got out.”
“Tell us exactly what took place then.”
“We spread the sheet on the ground, body in the sheet, carried the body back to the car. Mike had just pulled up. Put the body into the trunk and then we drove out to Amelia County.”
Scott went on to say that Pernell was driving and he got lost one time on the macabre journey.
“Where did you ultimately stop and where did you dispose of the body?” Stark asked.
“Some place in Amelia,” Scott answered. “It was slightly like a ditch. It had a brook running across it. That’s where we left the body.”
“All right,” Stark said, “the body’s in the trunk of the car. You get it out. Do you recall whether you left the body right alongside the road, or did you go away from the road or just exactly what did you do?”
“Pernell and myself and Mike got out of the car. Pernell took a gallon jug with him. Gasoline was in the jug. He proceeded to carry the body back into the wooded area. Just as…”
“Back from the road?” Stark interrupted. “Away from the road?”
“Yes, sir. We crossed the stream, set the body down, Pernell poured gasoline on it, lit it, and then we left.”
The Pricketts showed no emotion when Scott described burning Jeannie’s body. They had heard it before when he had testified in his own trial in Chesapeake. Then Carrie had fled the courtroom in tears.
In cross examination, Benjamin skillfully solicited answers from Scott that would fit neatly into his closing arguments.
“When you went to help move the body, you discovered that it was stiff?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“You told the police that each time they interviewed you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And it was so stiff that it gave Jefferson trouble getting it into the trunk of the car?”
“Yes, sir.”
“In fact, you heard the body crack at one point?”
“Yes, sir.”
After questioning Scott about how he had found his way out of Jeannie’s neighborhood after the abduction, Benjamin asked him to identify the friends he had stayed with in Norfolk that night.
“Their names,” Scott said, pausing for a moment. “Perrys.”
“Perrys?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Their address?”
“I do not know their address, sir.”
“Are they here today?”
“No, sir.”
“And have you ever told any law enforcement officers how to get hold of the Perrys?” Benjamin continued.
“Yes, sir,” Scott answered.
“Do you know if they did?”
“Yes, sir.”
Benjamin then moved on to a matter that might affect Scott’s credibility: the type of weapon Pernell had carried to abduct Jeannie. He knew that the bullet found in Jeannie’s skull had been a .32.
“At the preliminary hearing, you said many times that Pernell had a thirty-eight caliber that night. Correct?” he said to Scott.
“Yes, sir.”
“You were asked, weren’t you, ‘Do you know it was a thirty-eight?’, and you said, ‘Yes’?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You were asked, ‘How do you know it was a thirty-eight?’ Do you remember that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You said, ‘Because of the shells.’ Right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you said that you saw that they were thirty-eight-caliber shells?”
“Yes, sir, because I looked at them in my hand and they looked like thirty-eights.”
“Had you ever had a thirty-eight before?”
“No, sir.”
“Had you ever had thirty-eight ammunition before?”
“No, sir.”
“Had you, to your knowledge, ever held thirty-eight ammunition before?”
“No, sir.”
“You looked at the back of the cartridges, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“But you’re telling us today that you didn’t read the back of the cartridges?”
“No, sir.”
“Do you agree, sir, that when we talked about whether or not it was a thirty-eight or a thirty-two at the last hearing that you told us that you read thirty-eight on the back?” Benjamin pressed. “That was your testimony, wasn’t it?”
“No, sir. I said I looked at the back of the shells. I said they were thirty-eights.”
“Let me see if you remember this question and this answer,” Benjamin said, reading from the transcript of the preliminary hearing. “Question—‘And those bullets all said thirty-eight, didn’t they?’ Answer—‘Yes, sir,’ Wasn’t that the question and the answer put to you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And that’s how you answered, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You were under oath at that hearing, weren’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Jefferson never asked for a gun, did he?”
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p; “I do not remember,” Scott answered.
“Do you recall being asked whether or not Jefferson asked for a gun that night?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Your answer was, ‘Not to my knowledge.’ Right?”
“No, sir.”
Scott went on to tell Benjamin that he carried a gun in case “the gentleman” was home. The only male living in the same house as Jeannie, Denise and her daughter was Jerome, the construction worker, who was away visiting relatives for the weekend.
“So the gun was for the gentleman?” Benjamin said.
“No, sir.”
“Well, why did you bring the gun then? Protection from who?”
“To make sure there was no trouble, with the gentleman,” Scott answered.
“You were going to point the gun at the gentleman?”
“If need be, yes, sir.”
“And if need be, you were going to pull the trigger on the gentleman?”
“No, sir.”
“You weren’t going to shoot him?”
“No, sir.”
“Your gun wasn’t loaded, was it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why was it loaded?”
“It always was loaded, sir.”
“Just as a precaution?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Just in case you really did need to pull the trigger?”
“Maybe, sir.”
“Maybe so,” Benjamin said sarcastically. “Maybe at him, the gentleman?”
“Maybe if he was there, sir.”
“Now, at the preliminary hearing, you told us, didn’t you, that you never took the gun out of your pocket, you never pulled it out and went in with it. Wasn’t that your testimony before?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You were lying, weren’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Under oath?”
“Yes, sir.”
“In the courtroom right next to this one?”
“Yes, sir.”
Benjamin now had the point he wanted to make on record. Scott was a liar, and it had come from his own mouth.
26.
“If I Can’t Have Her…”
THURSDAY, THE FIRST DAY OF TESTIMONY, had been mild for the season and clear, but Friday dawned overcast and chilly, casting a darker and gloomier air over the courtroom.
Michael Savin was the first witness called. Short and stocky, Savin, who once had shared an apartment in Richmond with Charles Zimmer, had been convicted of four felonies, all burglaries. He confirmed that he had given Pernell a .32 Smith & Wesson revolver and a .22 Reuger to sell for him before the trip to Chesapeake. He said the .32 Smith & Wesson Pernell had the night Jeannie was abducted was the same gun he had given him.
Savin confirmed Zimmer’s testimony that the two thought they were going to Chesapeake to break into the house of a drug dealer. He described the trip and told how he, Scott and Zimmer waited in the darkness while Pernell went alone to the house. He said that Pernell soon returned and announced that no one was home.
“And then what happened?” Stark asked.
“Then Wayne and Pernell stayed on the side of the house and Chuck and I went to the front and broke down the door,” Savin said.
As Pernell rushed past him, he said, he saw that he was holding the .32 Smith & Wesson he had given him to sell a few days earlier. After describing how Pernell had subdued the woman who had appeared unexpectedly, Savin said that Pernell turned to him and said, “You guys can go.”
“And did you leave?” Stark asked.
“Yes, sir,” Savin answered quickly.
“Where did you go?”
“We went to Virginia Beach and stayed in a Triton Towers motel.”
“How long did you stay there?”
“For the weekend.”
“When was the next time that you heard from Jefferson?”
“I guess about the middle of the week when we got back. Almost a week after that night.”
“Did he call you or did you see him in person?”
“He called me on the phone,” Savin said.
“What did he have to say?”
“He asked if I’d heard anything on the news or anything about what had happened.”
“Did he tell you anything about what had happened to the girl?”
“He told me that the problem was over, that everything was taken care of.”
Savin went on to tell that he had agreed to help Pernell move Jeannie’s body to Amelia County where, Savin said, “Pernell took gasoline and poured the gasoline on it and lit a match.”
“Did you willingly volunteer to come on this trip?” Stark asked.
“Yes.”
“You weren’t threatened at all?”
“Not threatened. I felt threatened,” he said. “I wasn’t, you know, physically shown a gun or anything like that. I was just threatened.”
“Any threatening words said to you?”
“No,” Savin answered. “I could just tell through the tone of voice when he asked if I would go.”
“This was whose tone of voice?”
“Pernell’s.”
“The tone of voice, how would you describe it?”
“The tone of voice was that I’d better go and if not, you know, something could happen to me, possibly the same as what happened to her.”
“Would you describe it as menacing?”
“Yes.”
On cross examination, Benjamin questioned Savin about what he and Zimmer had done after the abduction.
“Stayed in the motel room,” Savin said.
“Tell me more.”
“That’s it.”
“Did you sit there?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You and Chuck?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Could you tell us any single thing you did after you got there besides sit there in your hotel room?” Benjamin pressed.
“We sat in the hotel room and thought about things,” Savin answered.
“And that’s it?”
“And that’s it.”
“All you can tell us about Saturday night and what you did?”
“That’s it.”
“Why not go back to Richmond?” Benjamin asked.
“Scared to go back to Richmond,” Savin responded.
“Why?”
“We were afraid Pernell would be there looking for us.”
“Why?”
“We were just afraid.”
“Why?”
There was silence in the courtroom while Savin waited to answer. Finally he said, “Because he had gone in there and thrown the girl on the ground and had a gun drawn on her. That’s enough to be afraid about, I think.”
“What did you do Sunday morning?”
“Sunday morning we stayed at the motel until check-out and then came back to Richmond.”
“Can you tell us anything you did Sunday morning other than that? Before you checked out, what did you do?”
“That’s it,” Savin answered yet again.
“Did you order room service?”
“No, sir. We didn’t have any money.”
The only food he and Zimmer ate during the two-day stay at Triton Towers was a free pizza given to them by one of Zimmer’s friends who worked at the motel, Savin said. They drank only water from the bathroom tap.
“Did you have to get gas on the way back?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where did you stop to do that?”
“I’m not certain. Somewhere off of Sixty-four.”
“Who paid for it?”
“I did,” Savin said.
“How much did the gas cost?”
“Five dollars.”
“That was money you had?”
“That was the only money I had.”
Later, Benjamin questioned Savin closely about his drug taking on the trip, hoping to show that Savin was so heavily influenced by drugs that night that he couldn’t reliably remember it.
“How do you take a hit of acid?” he asked.
“Swallow it,” Savin responded.
“Well, what did the acid do to you?”
Savin laughed nervously. “About thirty or forty minutes later, it started chirping like, you know, like it’s supposed to do.”
“There are some of us who have not had LSD, an LSD trip before. Would you describe what that is like?”
“Hallucinations.”
“What hallucinations did you have that night?”
Again Savin laughed nervously. “I don’t remember. I’ve taken a lot of acid and I don’t remember…the different, you know, kinds of hallucinations.”
“Describe to us the different kinds of hallucinations that LSD causes for you.”
“I would just see colors and things like that.”
“Things like what?”
“Just basically colors and shapes. Look up in a corner of a room and see something moving and it just freaks you out.”
“Like what?”
Again Savin laughed. “I don’t know.”
“I mean, does it have a recognizable form like spiders or elephants, or…”
“No.”
“Just globs?”
“Yes.”
“And they’re moving?”
“Yeah.”
“And they freak you out?”
“That’s what you take it for, you know.”
“What do you mean when you say that something freaks you out?”
“I mean I was high.”
“It scares you when you’re freaked out about something?”
“Not to the point where it scares me, no.”
“The cocaine that you took, the eightball, before you went down to Chesapeake, what effect did that have on you?”
“Not too much. Cocaine doesn’t last long in your system.”
“Well, that depends on the person, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t know. I’m not a drug expert.”
“You’re not a drug expert?”
“No, I’m not.”
“How much cocaine do you think you’ve taken in your short life?”
“It’s hard to say,” Savin said. “I don’t like to think about it. It’s behind me.”
“All right” Benjamin said, speaking more loudly now, “but you’ve got to think about it. If we piled all the cocaine, all the eightballs you’ve taken in your short life, how far would it reach from the floor?”
“I don’t know.” Again, Savin laughed nervously.
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