Man claims he broke into garage, was police informant

CHESAPEAKE

The case against accused cop killer Ryan Frederick relies partially on the accounts of burglars who may have been working as confidential police informants.

A 21-year-old Chesapeake man said he and another informant broke into Frederick's garage in the Portlock section of the city in January to look for evidence of a marijuana-growing operation and told the police about what they found there.

In an interview at the Chesapeake Correctional Center, Renaldo Turnbull Jr. told The Virginian-Pilot that he had been working with police for several months before the shooting of Detective Jarrod Shivers. Turnbull said Shivers was among the police officers he had provided information to.

Shivers, a 34-year-old father of three, was shot and killed during a Jan. 17 drug raid at Frederick's home in the 900 block of Redstart Ave. Frederick said he didn't know police were on the other side of his door when he shot through it. He said he thought intruders were breaking into his home.

Prosecutors now say Frederick, 29, knew the police were coming. They say Frederick told one of the burglars in a threatening phone conversation that he knew police might be coming after him and he would be ready.

Police and prosecutors have not identified the people involved in the Frederick burglary, and no one has been charged with that crime. Frederick never reported the break-in to police.

Frederick's attorney, James Broccoletti, said Wednesday he could not answer any questions regarding informants and their allegations. The special prosecutor in the case, Paul Ebert, also said he could not comment on the identities of the informants or allegations made by Turnbull.

Chesapeake Police Chief Kelvin Wright said his department does use confidential informants to make undercover drug buys, but he would not comment on any relationship police may have with street sources.

"We do not discuss people who may or may not be confidential informants," he said.

Police indicated earlier this year that a reliable informant led them to Frederick. At a court hearing on Sept. 8, prosecutors disclosed for the first time the involvement of burglars.

That disclosure prompted The Pilot to report now on its February jailhouse interview with Turnbull, who identified himself as one of the burglars.

According to Turnbull, he started working as a police informant after his release from prison last year. In August 2006, he pleaded guilty to breaking and entering, burglary of a dwelling with the intent to commit larceny, and two counts of grand larceny, according to court records.

Turnbull spoke to The Pilot shortly after his arrest in connection with a Jan. 3 burglary, he was arrested Jan. 28, 11 days after Shivers was killed.

He is now in the Chesapeake jail awaiting sentencing in December for that burglary. Other felony charges, for an alleged December 2007 crime involving grand larceny and entering a house to commit assault and battery, have since been leveled against him.

Shivers was killed as he and more than a dozen other officers tried to enter Frederick's house, looking for evidence of a marijuana-growing operation. Frederick's attorney, James Broccoletti, has argued that police later confiscated only one-third of an ounce of marijuana from the home.

Frederick was charged with capital murder, use of a firearm, and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana. He said he fired his gun twice that night at what he thought were intruders breaking through his front door.

When Frederick was taken into custody, he said he tried to tell authorities about a burglary at his home days before.

"I was telling them someone broke in earlier," he said. "And they said they know about that."

Turnbull said he and an accomplice didn't worry about breaking into Frederick's garage because police assured them they would be protected.

"The dude said he was going to look out for us, so let's go do it," he said.

A Frederick family member identified the second informant as a man in his early 20s named Steven. The Pilot is not fully identifying the man because he declined to be interviewed.

Steven knew Frederick and had worked with police before, according to Turnbull.

"Steven was doing this before I met him," Turnbull said.

Steven was arrested on unrelated charges two days before the Shivers shooting. He was being held in the Virginia Beach jail in February when he agreed to an interview with The Pilot, but he later declined. Steven's family, contacted at their home in Great Bridge, said he wasn't ready to talk.

Steven was scheduled to stand trial earlier this month but didn't show up at court. He is now listed as a fugitive.

Turnbull said he met with Shivers once and talked with him on the phone on other occasions. During a meeting at a 7-Eleven store near the intersection of Battlefield Boulevard and Cedar Road in Chesapeake, Shivers introduced himself.

"He told me what to look for. He said, if you know of any burglaries or anything, let Steven know... He said no evidence, no pay... He said if you know where it is, go get it."

The first attempt to break into Frederick's garage was canceled after they saw his SUV and another car parked in the driveway, said Turnbull, who said he does not know Frederick.

On the second attempt, they decided to call there first. When there was no answer, they went to his house and knocked on the door to make sure no one was home. Frederick's SUV was gone, he said.

Then they went through Frederick's privacy fence to his garage, Turnbull said. "It was locked, but Steven gave it a nice little kick and it opened, and there it was," he said.

Inside the garage was "a tent," with a zipper, "like a greenhouse," Turnbull said. Inside the small portable greenhouse were about 15 marijuana plants, each about 2 feet high, in two rows, in some sort of hydroponic setup, he said.

Turnbull said he took about five or six plants and left to turn the evidence over to police. Steven, he said, was the person who actually handed the plants to police.

Days later, police executed a search warrant for Frederick's home. In a search warrant affidavit, police said a confidential informant had been inside Frederick's residence and saw marijuana plants in the detached garage.

The informant, police said in their affidavit, described the growth stages of the plants, which were inside "a portable closet type casing."

Frederick has said that on the night of the shooting, he was sleeping when he heard a commotion and retrieved his Bersa .380-caliber Firestorm gun.

"My dogs woke me up," he said in an earlier interview. "They were barking like crazy. They're barking like really crazy, so I grabbed my gun. As I'm walking through the hall, something comes busting through my door."

According to Turnbull, Frederick suspected that the informant Steven was behind the burglary. After the break-in, an angry Frederick had repeatedly called Turnbull's cell phone and had threatened Steven's parents in Great Bridge.

Turnbull speculates that Frederick obtained his cell number from caller ID after he and Steven called to see whether Frederick was home before the burglary.

Frederick "kept calling," Turnbull said.

He tried to assure Frederick that he was not involved in the break-in, but Frederick seemed to know that the burglars were Steven and a dark -skinned black male, possibly from a security camera, said Turnbull, who is black.

"When I talked to him on my phone, (Frederick) said, 'I know Steven's locked up and I know police are coming to my home, but I got something for them,' " Turnbull said.

"He said: 'Anybody come to my door, I'm going to blast them' - straight like that."

That is simil ar to the account prosecutors provided at the Sept. 8 court hearing.

Police in February obtained a search warrant to seize Verizon telephone records for all incoming and outgoing calls on Jan. 16 and 17 at Frederick's home.

In more recent months, Turnbull has declined to discuss the case further. Once, during a bond hearing, he yelled out to a General District Court judge as he was being escorted to jail, "They didn't tell you about that officer who was shot!"

John Hopkins, (757) 222-5221, john.hopkins@pilotonline.com