Defense Calls Victim's Grandmother, Brother in Murder Trial

It was a day for expert witnesses, foggy memories, and disputed testimonies as the prosecution rested its argument and the defense began calling witnesses in the second day of a Rose Hill teen accused of murder.

The male defendant, 15-years-old at the time of his alleged crime, is accused of murdering 18-year-old Rose Hill resident Wyatt Campbell with a knife on October 14, 2010. It is Patch policy not to name minors charged with crimes.

The 7-Eleven Witness

The prosecution called James Lewis, a Rose Hill man who was walking into the 7-Eleven when the argument brought out between Campbell, a friend, and the defendant and his brother over whether Campbell had robbed the defendant.

In court, Lewis explained a surveillance video taken of the 7-Eleven's entrance. Because it was shown at an angle away from the public, Kingstowne Patch can't say what the tape contained. From descriptions, however, it appeared to show the entrance to the 7-Eleven, and possibly the headlights of cars in front of the store.

In one strange moment, Lewis described Randy Taylor, who is 21 years-old, as probably in his late thirties or early forties. Coming upon the situation in the parking lot, he guessed that Taylor was Campbell's father.

Tony Perez

In the morning, the prosecution called Tony Perez, a friend of Campbell's who took him to the hospital after he was stabbed. Perez described how he drive in the sidestreet behind the Rose Hill Shopping Center, saw Campbell struggling after the fight, and put him in his car. 

As he heard Campbell grow quiet on the way to the hospital, Perez worried that he had stopped fighting for his life.

"You're not gone!" Perez recalled saying. "You're still with me!"

The defense, after pointing out that Perez was on felony probation on the night of Campbell's death, asked Perez whether he participated in the fight.

According to the defense's theory of the fight, Perez helped Campbell and Taylor fight the defendant and his older brother. The prosecution holds that Perez was not involved.

"You know you're under oath right now?" defense attorney Cary Greenberg asked Perez after he denied involvement in the fight.

Medical Examiner

After Perez, the jury heard from a DNA expert about DNA found around the crime scene (most of it could be attributed to Campbell) and the medical examiner who performed Campbell's autopsy.

According to Dr. A Wayne Williams, Campbell received 12 stab wounds on his body, two of which would be fatal. The first, which went through cartilage around his ribs and his pulmonary artery, caused blood loss.

With less blood carrying oxygen throughout Campbell's body, he would have experienced the "short of breath" feeling Taylor described seeing in his friend.

The second fatal cut went through Campbell's diaphragm, liver, and stomach. Although it would eventually have killed him, the cut through his pulmonary artery was the immediate cause of Campbell's death from blood loss.

Campbell also had two stab wounds on the back of his head that Williams said were caused by one stabbing motion--"basically one stab wound that was in and out his scalp."

Judging by the cuts, Williams said, the knife that cut into Campbell had one sharp side and one blunt side. Police never recovered the knife that was used to stab Campbell.

Williams said that the stab wounds were consistent with a fight. 

Motion to Strike

With the jury out of the room and the Commonwealth's prosecution finished, Greenberg asked Judge Brett A. Kassabian to eliminate the second degree murder charge against the defendant.

Homicide requires malice, Greenberg said, arguing that even taking the Commonwealth's evidence in the most positive light showed no malice on the defendant's part.

"All the facts show no intent to kill," Greenberg said, saying that when Campbell tried to leave the fight, the defendant allowed him to. If the defendant wanted to kill the wounded Campbell, according to the defense, he would have pursued him.

Kassabian declined to strike the charge, citing the use of a weapon and the length of the stab wounds Campbell received as evidence of malice.

Campbell's Reputation

The defense called two teenaged friends of the defendant to the stand as witnesses. One night during the summer of 2010, the three teens were allegedly ambushed by Campbell and two other older boys. Pretending to be police, the older teens stole the younger teens' phones and iPods.

The teens said they didn't report the crime because their parents didn't know they were out so late. The robbery is supposedly what precipitated the argument at the 7-Eleven. 

One of the defendant's friends said Campbell had a reputation for violence.

"People knew who he was and they always talked about the stuff he did," he said, although he added that Campbell didn't touch him during the robbery.

The defendant's other friend, however, disagreed, saying that Campbell had pushed the defendant against a fence and frisked him, looking for valuables.

When prosecutor Camille Turner asked the witness whether he had already told police in an earlier statement that Campbell hadn't pushed anyone, the witness said he didn't recall saying that and insisted that Campbell was involved in the robbery.

Campbell's Family

The defense called Mary Ann Meegan, Campbell's grandmother, to testify. After the argument at the 7-Eleven, Taylor and Campbell went to Meegan's nearby apartment before heading to the fight behind the convenience store.

Meegan said that Campbell stayed at her home for between 15 and 20 minutes.

Meegan said her grandson left with a golf club, the first admission by anyone associated with Campbell in the case that he had taken a golf club to the fight. A broken golf club shaft was found near the crime scene after the fight.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Caroline Costle asked Meegan if she remembered telling a Fairfax County Police Department detective that Campbell had only stayed in the apartment for a few minutes, instead of the 15-20 minutes she testified to in court. Meegan said that she remembered giving the earlier statement.

"He was happy when he came home," Meegan said. "He was angry when he left."

After Meegan, the defense called William Campbell, Campbell's 20-year-old brother.

Greenberg, who has been prevented from producing evidence about Wyatt Campbell's possible history of marijuana dealing with Taylor and Perez by a ruling from the judge, asked William Campbell whether, the day after the murder, he told FCPD Detective Dan Bibeault that his younger brother had been involved in a drug deal that went sour.

William Campbell said he didn't recall making any statement like that. When Greenberg asked him if he'd like to see the interview where he allegedly said it, Campbell refused, saying he knows what he said.

Immediately after Campbell, the defense called Bibeault to the stand. Bibeault said that William Campbell did tell him that his younger brother had told him about a recent drug deal gone bad, and explained how he chased at least one person down the street with a baseball bat as a result.

The Defendant's Brother

For the last witness of the day, the defense called David, the defendant's older brother. Patch will not publish his last name because it would make it possible to identify the minor defendant.

David, 24, worked at a Gamestop store in October 2010. After getting off work on October 14, he picked up his younger brother and took him to the 7-Eleven to buy drinks and cigarettes, but realized he didn't have any money.

As he left the store, David said, his brother pointed out Campbell sitting nearby in a car. When David confronted him, Campbell laughed, and David pushed his head. 

David said Campbell then tried to get out of the car while pulling the spring-loaded knife that was later found amongst his personal effects in the hospital. 

"I'm going to get you," David recalls Campbell saying to him. Soon, though, Taylor convinced Campbell not to fight in front of the store.

The two brothers left the 7-Eleven, and David came up with a plan. He'd pretend that a broken Airsoft pellet pistol they had at home was actually a real gun, and threaten Campbell and Taylor until they gave back his brother's stolen iPod.

After the brothers went to the alley, though, the plan fell apart, according to David's testimony. Campbell arrived with Taylor and Perez, and none of them were scared by the broken toy gun.

"[Perez and Taylor] just ran at me and started punching," David said. When David could see his younger brother fighting Campbell, he saw Campbell swinging something at him, then trying to tackle his younger brother. 

Soon, Campbell said he had been hurt. Taylor left in his car, and Perez and Campbell left in Perez's Cherokee.

The brothers left, too, returning to their house. The younger brother had received a cut (photos taken the day after show a cut on one of his wrists), and they bandaged it up while trying not to wake their mother.

David said his brother also received a black eye and a long, straight mark, two centimeters thick, across his ribs. This would seem to be consistent with a mark from a golf club, and was not mentioned in testimony from an officer who photographed the defendant's wounds soon after the fight.

In cross-examination, David admitted telling police about the toy gun late in interviews, and initially saying his younger brother never got out of the car during the fight. He insisted at trial that his brother didn't have a knife at the fight.

"He's not allowed to carry a knife," David said.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Camille Turner closed the cross-examination with a series of rapid questions:

Turner: Little brother?

David: Yes.

Turner: Love him?

David: Yes.

Turner: Want to protect him?

David: Yes.

Turner: To this day.