Testimony about Morva's capturePosted Mar07, 2008 at 04:20 PMBefore court adjourned for the day this afternoon, jurors heard from several police officers who described finding Morva in a thicket off the Huckleberry Trail and taking him into custody. Blacksburg police Officer Ryan Hite first noticed Morva."I saw something white at ground level" 10 to 15 feet away, Hite testified. He took a few steps in that direction and made eye contact with Morva. "When I first saw him he was looking at me," Hite said. Morva sighed, he said. Hite and Blacksburg police Officer Brian Cross yelled at Morva to put his hands where they could see them. Testimony ends for todayPosted Mar07, 2008 at 04:02 PMAgain today, court has let out early because no more witnesses were in Abingdon, ready to be called to testify. "It is proceeding faster than we had all estimated," Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs told jurors before letting them go just before 4 p.m. He assured them they wouldn't be getting out as early next week. "We're competing with the race in Bristol next week," Grubbs said, so he plans to keep them late each day to wrap up the trial before the week's end. After jurors left, defense attorney Tony Anderson moved for a mistrial, citing a small piece of the testimony of Blacksburg police officer Ryan Hite. Hite testified that after he read Morva his Miranda rights, advising him of the right to remain silent, he asked Morva if he wanted to talk to him and other officers. Morva, he said, shook his head back and forth. Jurors hear from widow, officers who captured MorvaPosted Mar07, 2008 at 02:27 PMTamara Sutphin, Cpl. Eric Sutphin's widow, was first on the witness stand after lunch today. She cried as prosecutors played a tape of her husband's last radio transmissions, in which he can be heard saying the suspect was running from him. A man who at the time lived just off the Huckleberry Trail testified that he heard two quick gunshots and found Sutphin's body. He said he called 911 and ran to Sutphin, but saw that the officer had been shot in the back of the head. Officers who tried to aid Sutphin also testified, and jurors heard from several officers who found Morva later the afternoon of Aug. 21, 2006, in thick, 6-feet-tall brush off the Huckleberry Trail. Morva judge enforces ruling on police uniformsPosted Mar07, 2008 at 12:22 PMMonths ago at a motions hearing, the judge ruled in favor of a defense motion to prevent law enforcement officers sitting as spectators in the case from wearing their uniforms in the court. That show of support in a case where a law enforcement officer was killed could sway jurors, defense attorneys argued. A sign was posted on the courtroom door on the first day of the trial that says: "NO UNIFORM OR BADGES IN COURT ROOM." Today, that rule was enforced. An officer from the Albemarle County Police Department, where Cpl. Eric Sutphin once worked, came to Abingdon to watch the trial today. He and Sutphin worked together, he said, and were close friends. Out of respect, the officer said, he dressed in a full uniform. Because of that, he wasn't allowed in the courtroom. Instead, the officer has been sitting alongside reporters and photographers in the media room, watching the trial via video feed. 7 witnesses testify in Morva trialPosted Mar07, 2008 at 11:40 AMJurors have heard from seven witnesses -- an evidence technician, a sheriff's deputy and people who saw William Morva on the Huckleberry Trail -- so far today before breaking for lunch about 11:35. The first was detective Van Speese, an evidence technician for the Blacksburg Police Department, who testified that he processed the crime scene at Montgomery Regional Hospital where security guard Derrick McFarland was killed and Montgomery County sheriff's deputy Russell Quesenberry injured. |
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