chupacabrah
Member
pretty scary.
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/sep/13/2-men-will-not-testify-at-trial/news/
2 men will not testify at trial
Final arguments
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By Dan Galindo | Journal Reporter
Published: September 13, 2008
Jurors are expected to start deliberating Monday in the case of two men accused of robbing and killing a Kernersville man in his house in 2005.
Ben Porter, an attorney for Dwight Clodfelter, and J.D. Byers, an attorney for Kevin Jessup, told Judge Todd Burke in Forsyth Superior Court yesterday that they would not be calling any witnesses to counter the case that prosecutors have made against the two men, both of whom decided not to testify.
Jurors will hear closing arguments Monday morning, then begin deliberating.
Porter and Byers told Judge Todd Burke that they want jurors to be able to consider a verdict of second-degree murder against the two men.
"In the light most favorable to Mr. Clodfelter, there's a struggle, the victim fired a weapon, all in a short period of time," Porter said. "I think the jury can find that there was not premeditation."
Clodfelter, 20, and Jessup, 40, are on trial for first-degree murder, armed robbery and two counts of larceny of a firearm.
They and a third man, Marcus Bowen Jr., 27, are accused of breaking into Kim Tuttle's house in the middle of the day on Sept. 27, 2005, robbing, beating and shooting him inside a room in the basement.
Clodfelter is accused of shooting Tuttle with one of Tuttle's guns. Jessup is accused of wrestling with Tuttle after Tuttle shot at the men in an effort to defend himself. Tuttle missed.
Bowen testified against Clodfelter, and Jessup and is expected to plead guilty at a later date.
In an account that Clodfelter gave to Kernersville police detectives and an agent with the State Bureau of Investigation, he said that Bowen and Jessup were struggling with Tuttle when Tuttle asked the men to let him go.
"Marcus told me to ‘shoot him, shoot him,'" read Clodfelter's statement, which SBI agency Danny Mayes read from the witness stand. "I went to the gun safe, pulled out a .38 snub-nose revolver. I pointed at Kim," the statement read, "and I fired."
Another SBI agent, Scott Williams, read Jessup's statement to investigators. In it, Jessup said he was homeless and staying with a friend in Lewisville on Sept. 27, 2005, when Bowen called him to pick him up.
Jessup said that at first he stayed in the car as Bowen and Clodfelter broke into Tuttle's home.
According to Jessup's statement, Clodfelter shot Tuttle and told Jessup to help take electronics and guns from the home or "end up like that."
Tuttle was hit with the butt of a gun and shot once. The bullet went through his left forearm and into his head.
He was shot inside a basement room where he kept his 40 guns in a safe. Tuttle shot at his attackers once after they kicked open the locked door to the room. He missed.
Prosecutors David Hall and Drew Cochran have said that Clodfelter came up with the idea to steal guns to repay a debt he and Bowen owed because they had wrecked a man's car. Clodfelter knew that Tuttle's neighbor owned guns, but the three burglars went to Tuttle's house by mistake, prosecutors said.
Frederick Eugene Williams, a drug dealer serving a federal prison sentence, testified yesterday that Clodfelter and Bowen sold him one of Tuttle's guns. Another man sold him a second gun Tuttle owned.
After Williams was arrested in 2006, investigators matched the two guns and found Bowen and Clodfelter through Williams.
A palm print found on Tuttle's SUV, which was next to the locked door, matched Jessup's.
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at [email protected].
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/sep/13/2-men-will-not-testify-at-trial/news/
They just can't do much on their own.