2nd murder trial starts in Richmond

A second trial began yesterday for a Richmond man accused of killing his cousin in retaliation for the death of another cousin several hours earlier.

Prosecutors say Jason L. Patillo, 25, shot and killed James "Soul" Patillo, 37, on Feb. 4 in the front yard of an aunt's house in the 2500 block of Ford Avenue in Richmond's East End.

About seven hours earlier, Alphonzo "Fonz" Patillo was shot and left to die in a parking lot near a club in Hopewell after a Super Bowl party.

Soon after that shooting, a rumor reached Patillo relatives in Richmond that James Patillo had been involved in Alphonzo Patillo's death and had set him up to be robbed, prosecutors said.

Hopewell police, however, do not believe James Patillo was involved in Alphonzo Patillo's death, a Hopewell investigator testified yesterday. The case is unsolved.

According to Richmond prosecutor Bryan Rhode, a witness saw Jason Patillo in the house on Ford Avenue wearing a multicolored fur coat and snorting cocaine and heard him say, "Somebody's gotta pay for what happened to Alphonzo. Somebody's gotta go."

Kimberly Patillo, a relative of most of those involved, testified yesterday that she saw Jason Patillo outside talking with James Patillo shortly before the gunshots, said Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Matthew P. Geary. Another woman testified that she heard the shots, ran to a window and saw a man in a colorful, fuzzy jacket with a gun but didn't see his face, Geary said.

Witnesses have said Jason Patillo sometimes wore a colorful fur coat that has been described as rainbow-colored. One witness yesterday said it was the ugliest coat he has ever seen.

James Patillo was shot with a .41-caliber revolver, prosecutors said. Police found a box of .41-caliber ammunition in a white Cadillac that Jason Patillo often drove, with his fingerprint inside the box. The gun was never recovered.

The killing of James Patillo created a rift in the large extended family. At Jason Patillo's first trial in August, two family members were removed from the courtroom, and some relatives had a shouting match in a hallway.

Security was tight in the courtroom yesterday, but authorities reported no major blowups.

The first time the case was tried, a judge declared a mistrial after a police detective said in court that Patillo had been sought for probation violations. It was the second mention in the two-day trial that Patillo had dealings with probation officers.

Under Virginia law, evidence about past offenses can't be presented to a jury while it is considering the facts of the case.

The trial continues today at 9 a.m.

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or .