Hanover man’s murder trial begins yet again

Derek Edward Burkhead's road to innocence or prison has been stymied by fainting spells, three mistrials and, yesterday, by an early morning jail cell fight.

But the murder defendant appeared for trial yesterday with a swollen jaw, a new defense lawyer and a renewed plea of not guilty.

"He says he's ready to proceed," attorney John Honey said of his client yesterday morning before a clerk asked for Burkhead's pleas to a second-degree murder charge and felony use of a firearm.

The 26-year-old Hanover man's murder conviction was tossed out earlier this year in one of three mistrials declared since the September 2006 death of his girlfriend.

The fourth trial is being heard by a jury of 10 women and four men in Hanover Circuit Court. Two alternate jurors, both women, will be excused when and if jury deliberations begin.

Burkhead fainted into semi-consciousness during two earlier trials, forcing mistrials in both; a third jury's accidental receipt of nonevidentiary material after a trial in February forced a third mistrial.

The fourth trial enters its second day today, and yesterday featured what prosecutors described as a first-time-ever description of events by Burkhead's brother, Wilson Burkhead, a key witness.

Derek Burkhead told investigators that his girlfriend since childhood, Jennifer Michelle Willis, 25, died accidentally when a gun fired during a shoving match between him and her.

But prosecutor Shannon Hoehl yesterday aggressively examined Wilson Burkhead, who used new language on the stand to characterize events prior to the early morning shooting Sept. 3, 2006.

A written statement made to police then by Wilson Burkhead indicated that a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol had fired as his brother waved it around. But yesterday, Wilson Burkhead said from the stand that the fatal shot occurred while the couple "tussled."

The distinction is important because prosecutors have argued that Burkhead had reason to shoot the mother of his young son. A fight before the shot might support a heat-of-passion crime, and explain an accidental shooting during a struggle.

Calls made by Derek Burkhead to an emergency operator show that Derek Burkhead said only that his girlfriend was dead in bed. The line went dead when a dispatcher asked him what happened.

Two calls to the couple's Mechanicsville area home by 911 operators then went answered only by a greeting taped by Willis. Her family wept at hearing her voice yesterday.

Eventually, Wilson Burkhead -- who had been called to the house by his brother -- answers calls from police and describes how there had been a "domestic dispute" and a shooting. Standing by Willis' body, he described Willis as lifeless, bleeding from her nose and turning purple.

Prosecutors yesterday showed jurors text messages that showed in the hours before the shooting that Willis was accusing Burkhead of being with another woman at a bar and telling him she was ending their relationship.

Willis, who was physically larger than Burkhead, was found on her back in bed, killed by a bullet to the head. Burkhead was arrested at the couple's Cold Harbor Road home.

In February, a jury convicted Burkhead of second-degree, nonpremeditated murder and recommended a 25-year sentence before the verdict was set aside.

Burkhead cannot be convicted of a crime greater than second-degree murder because of that decision.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .