UPDATE: Prosecutor says Matko was paralyzed, tried to crawl to safety before dying

Ryan Matko, shot once in back, fell paralyzed from the waist down and tried to crawl to safety, a prosecutor said today during opening arguments of Detavis J. King's trial in Matko's death.

Then, King caught up with Matko and bent over to administer the fatal wound by shooting the Chesterfield County youth in the temple, Chesterfield Commonwealth's Attorney William W. Davenport said.

(This is a breaking news update)

Earlier today, Chesterfield County Judge Frederick G. Rockwell III barred prosecutors from mentioning the gang affiliation of 18-year-old King.

Rockwell granted a defense motion and told prosecutors that they had not established anything other than King’s gang membership.

“It is speculative” to suggest that the gang membership had anything to do with the slaying, Rockwell said.

Prosecutors said they seized from King’s bedroom a pair of black-and-white Converse high-top sneakers with the familiar star on the ankle patch that had been altered to include red so that the color scheme and logo would show their wearer to be part of the Piru gang, a subset of the Bloods. Also, prosecutors said, the shoes carried residue of gunshot primer.

During two hours of jury selection today, potential panel members were asked whether they had seen a story in this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch about the defense request over the gang issue.

Two jurors said they had read or scanned the article, and they were excused. Others questioned said they had not seen the story.

King is accused of shooting Matko, 16, the son of a Richmond police sergeant, on Aug. 22, 2007.

(This is a breaking news update)

A lawyer representing an admitted gang member charged with killing Chesterfield County teenager Ryan Matko will seek to prevent prosecutors at trial today from making any reference to his client's gang affiliation.

Defense attorney Greg Sheldon last week filed a motion in Chesterfield Circuit Court asking Judge Frederick G. Rockwell III to prohibit the prosecution from "making any direct or indirect reference whatsoever" to Detavis J. King's one-time affiliation with the Piru gang, a subset of the Bloods.

Sheldon said any mention of gang affiliation would be prejudicial and irrelevant.

King, who turned 18 in June, faces first-degree murder and felony firearm charges today in a jury trial that could run through Wednesday. He is accused of fatally shooting 16-year-old Matko, the son of Richmond police Sgt. Max Matko, on Aug. 22, 2007.

According to prosecution evidence at King's preliminary hearing in April, King told investigators he was Matko's drug supplier and he was to have sold him a quarter-pound of marijuana on the day Matko was shot.

A detective testified about King's former gang involvement, but prosecutors at that time presented no evidence that linked King's gang activity, which the defendant has acknowledged to police, to the slaying.

In his motion, Sheldon said he learned during a meeting with prosecutors that they intend to introduce "extensive evidence of the defendant's alleged prior gang participation as a possible motive for the homicide." The evidence will include clothing seized from King and statements he made about his alleged participation in a criminal street gang, the motion says.

"More specifically, the commonwealth intends to introduce the expert testimony of Detective Keith Applewhite to demonstrate that the defendant would 'elevate his status' in the gang of which he was alleged to be a member by committing a murder," Sheldon wrote.

Sheldon wrote that the highly prejudicial effect of such evidence against his client in the eyes of a jury "greatly outweighs" any value it would have as potential evidence. Further, "it proves no element of the offenses charged and is highly speculative in nature as it pertains to an alleged motive."

Sheldon cited case law that allowed such evidence to be introduced at trial in another case, but he noted that both the defendant and victim in the earlier case were members of rival gangs -- a key distinction from the Matko slaying. "There is no evidence to suggest that the victim [Matko] was affiliated with a rival gang, much less involved in gang culture at all," he wrote.

Chesterfield Commonwealth's Attorney William W. Davenport will prosecute the case with veteran murder prosecutor Warren B. Von Schuch and Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Kenneth E. Nickels. The team plans to call about 20 witnesses.

Davenport acknowledged that some of the prosecution's evidence "ties into" King's gang involvement, but he declined to say to what extent that will be pursued.

"We're going to do everything that we can do to try to make sure that justice prevails, but I don't think commenting on it . . . is good for the case," Davenport said last week.

Authorities say King, who was 16 at the time, fatally shot Matko, a Thomas Dale High School student, in an isolated area just 300 yards from where King lived in a subdivision near Cogbill and Newbys Bridge roads.

Although no clear motive was established during King's preliminary hearing, the prosecution's case suggested Matko was killed during some type of drug transaction or dispute.

Rose Matko, Ryan's mother, testified she had found a shoebox in her son's room several weeks earlier that contained $440 and some drug paraphernalia, and that she had monitored its contents daily without telling her son. To her dismay, the cash and a blue drug scale had been removed from the box on the day her son turned up missing.

When police found the teenager's abandoned car Aug. 23 -- not far from where his body was found -- investigators found a shoebox in the trunk, but it contained only five $1 bills and some marijuana cigarette butts.

In an interview with investigators, King denied he saw Matko the day he was killed or the next day when his body was found by a police tracking dog. Police say Matko's cell-phone records showed the two had traded calls and that Matko's last call on the day he died was made to King's residence about 9:30 a.m.

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or .