Matko slaying case could go to jury today

Cell-phone records, a pair of sneakers, a murder weapon sold four times and a clinical look at how 16-year-old Ryan Matko died became the focus of Detavis J. King's murder trial yesterday as prosecutors wrapped up their case.

In calling 18 witnesses over two days and stipulating the testimony of three others, Chesterfield County prosecutors laid out what they believe were the circumstances that led to the Chesterfield teenager's death Aug. 22, 2007.

But why Matko was killed remained elusive.

Prosecutors may articulate their theory in closing arguments this morning on the trial's third day.

A gang-related motive pushed by prosecutors was rejected early in the case when Judge Frederick G. Rockwell III blocked any mention of King's gang ties to the Bloods. An admitted gang member, King, now 18, has acknowledged selling small quantities of marijuana to Matko, whom he once described to investigators as a "cool dude" and friend.

At the end of yesterday's proceedings, defense attorney Greg Sheldon told the court that he will present no evidence nor call any witnesses today, including King.

King is charged with first-degree murder and felony use of a firearm in Matko's shooting death.

The jury could get the case before noon.

Prosecutors took great pains trying to link King to the gun they identified as the murder weapon.

Former schooland work-mate Dominique Johnson, 18, testified that King sold him the .32-caliber revolver for $75 sometime around the start of the 2007 school year, but he couldn't recall precisely when.

Johnson said he picked up the gun after making several cell phone calls for directions to King's house -- a transaction prosecutors suggested occurred on the same day Matko was killed. They introduced cell phone transmission records that showed a call from Johnson's cell phone had been placed to King's house at 11:04 a.m. on Aug. 22, 2007, while the caller was in the area where King lived.

Sheldon portrayed Johnson as an untrustworthy witness who gave conflicting statements to detectives early in the investigation and couldn't get his story straight at trial. Sheldon noted that in one written statement to police, Johnson wrote, "I would rather do good for myself than anything right now."

Johnson testified he kept the gun for three or four weeks before selling it to Jamaal Gee in Hopewell, who sold it to an acquaintance about a month later. Investigators ended up tracking the gun to Gee, who helped them recover the weapon by buying it back from his friend with police money.

A state forensic firearms expert who examined the gun testified that the bullets that killed Matko had been fired by the same revolver. A pair of King's high-top Converse tennis shoes seized from his home were found to have highly specific gunshot residue particles on the rubber toe area that extends around the sides, another technician testified.

Detective John Capocelli reviewed numerous cell and landline phone records in the case. He testified he found that Matko, on the day he was killed, made four calls to King and King made one call to Matko between 8:43 and 9:16 a.m. Matko's phone was shut off -- something his mother said he never did -- after the last call.

After his arrest in February, King admitted in an interview with police that he had sold the .32-caliber revolver to Johnson after keeping it about four months. He did not confess to the killing.

In an interview with Detective Keith Applewhite on the day after Matko's car and body were found in an isolated area not far from where King lived, King acknowledged that he had sold drugs to Matko in the past -- usually a single "blunt," a cigar hollowed out and filled with marijuana, Applewhite testified.

But King told Applewhite that Matko had recently asked for a much larger amount. In fact, King told the detective that he was scheduled to meet Matko on Aug. 22 to sell him a quarter-pound of marijuana. But the meeting never took place, King said, and he never saw Matko again.

Prosecutors used Dr. Kevin Whaley, Virginia's assistant chief medical examiner, to put an exclamation point on what happened to Matko nearly two years ago.

In testimony that prosecutor Warren Von Schuch warned could be painfully graphic for some, Whaley detailed how Matko was first shot in the back. The wound essentially severed his spinal cord. Paralyzed from the waist down, the still-conscious teenager then pulled himself along with his hands and forearms in a desperate attempt to escape his assailant.

That is when prosecutors say King caught up to Matko, reached down with a .32-caliber pistol, placed it against Matko's left temple and pulled the trigger. The shot brought instant death, Whaley testified.

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com.