Jury to resume deliberations in Navy officer's murder trial

VIRGINIA BEACH

A jury is set to resume deliberations this morning in the trial of Navy Lt. Michael Lee Everage, charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys made their final arguments Thursday, closing out a trial that started Dec. 10 and featured testimony from dozens of witnesses.

Jurors began deliberating about 2:40 p.m. and broke for the evening at 5 p.m. They were to resume at 9:15 a.m. today.

Everage, 40, is accused of beating Robyn Everage to death and dumping her body on Feb. 19, 2007, in woods along Shore Drive. He reported her missing the next day.

Prosecutors Tabitha Anderson and Scott Vachris argued that he had meticulously planned to kill his wife and has tried ever since to cover up the crime.

They stressed how his story had changed over time. Even while Everage was on the witness stand, Anderson said, his story was evolving, with new details emerging to fit the case laid out against him.

The Everages were preparing to divorce. Robyn Everage knew about her husband's affair with another man and had accepted it, but she wanted out of the marriage when she learned on Feb. 10 that her husband also was romantically involved with one of her female friends, witnesses said.

Prosecutors said Everage killed his wife rather than risk her revealing information - such as his homosexual affair - that could ruin his Navy career and cost him custody of the couple's young daughter, as well as his two children from a previous marriage.

Defense attorney Daniel Goode conceded that Everage had lied to his wife - and later to investigators - about his illicit sexual relationships.

"Michael Lee Everage is a liar," Goode told jurors.

"He built up a web of lies around his life something fierce," he said, "not the kind of thing you cease very quickly, especially around the time your wife goes missing."

But Goode said Everage told the truth during his four hours of testimony, and that the police had fixated on him rather than investigate other leads.

Goode questioned the credibility of inmate Timothy W. Gurley, a felon who said he hoped to cut his prison term by testifying that Everage confessed the killing to him.

Goode also stressed the absence of Michael Everage's DNA on a side-view truck mirror, which authorities believe was the murder weapon. It was found, bearing Robyn Everage's hair and blood, near her body. Goode argued she could have been struck and killed by a passing truck as she walked along Shore Drive, not far from where her SUV was parked with two flat tires.

Prosecutors dismissed that possibility, citing forensic evidence.

Vachris noted that a medical examiner had testified that Robyn Everage died after being hit "at least four times" in the head. He told jurors a passing truck would have had to repeatedly back up and strike her to create the injuries she sustained. "This was no traffic accident," Vachris said.

Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com