Virginia Beach man convicted of killing wife with crossbow

VIRGINIA BEACH

A jury didn't believe that Kenneth Creamer could accidentally shoot his wife twice with a crossbow in just four months.

So after more than two hours of deliberation Wednesday, they convicted the 47-year-old man of first-degree murder, deciding he deliberately shot a hunting bolt through her back as she walked on a treadmill in their garage in Courthouse Estates.

Prosecutors argued that the shooting in September 2005, in which Anna Creamer survived a practice arrow that grazed her chest, was a prelude to what Creamer thought was the perfect crime.

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Patrick Connelly told jurors that Kenneth Creamer made several mistakes when he staged the crime scene to make it look like a second crossbow accident.

Anna Creamer was killed on Jan. 8, 2006, after a three-pronged hunting tip impaled her heart and severed her aorta. Crime scene photographs shown on a widescreen television indicated that she bled to death on the floor of her garage while her 11-year-old son watched television in the nearby living room.

Defense attorney Afshin Farashahi tried to show that the shooting was an accident and that Kenneth Creamer had no motive to kill his wife. He said that after his wife's death, Creamer had relinquished any rights to her insurance policies.

Witnesses testified that after she survived the first shooting, Anna Creamer begged her husband to get rid of the crossbow. Kenneth Creamer made excuses, saying he worried about the liability should it be found.

Creamer, who appeared jittery when he took the witness stand Wednesday morning, told jurors he thought his wife had given the crossbow away. He testified that he hadn't seen the weapon, much less loaded it, since it accidentally discharged while he was passing it to his wife three months before the shooting.

Creamer, his voice cracking, described how he had tossed a large Christmas bag behind him while he was cleaning up the garage the morning she was killed.

That bag contained the crossbow, which, he said, struck a refrigerator and fired the razor-tipped bolt into his wife's back. She groaned and stopped breathing in his arms, he said.

"Use your common sense," Connelly told jurors during his closing argument.

He noted that it was unlikely anyone would store a crossbow fully drawn with a hunting bolt in place or that Creamer wouldn't look inside that bag before tossing it.

Connelly also pointed out an inconsistency in the story Kenneth Creamer told police. He said the shot that killed the special education teacher was not consistent with an arrow fired after hitting the refrigerator.

"It was not the perfect crime scene, and it was not the perfect murder," Connelly said.

The jury will return today to recommend a sentence.

Duane Bourne, (757) 222-5150, duane.bourne@pilotonline.com