Pair in murder-for-hire of sailor deny involvement

NORFOLK

Two suspects in the murder-for-hire of a Navy sailor presented, for the first time publicly, their defense in the case:

They didn't do it, their lawyers told a federal court jury Thursday.

Michael Anthony Eric Draven, 28, and David Anthony Runyon, 38, are on trial in U.S. District Court, charged with five felonies in the murder of Cory Voss. The jury heard opening statements Thursday morning; introduction of evidence will begin Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Samuels spoke for about an hour Thursday, presenting the tale of how Voss' wife, Catherina Voss, plotted the murder of her husband so she could be with her lover, Draven, and collect $500,000 in death benefits.

Catherina Voss, 33, who goes by the nickname Cat, has already pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison without parole. She is expected to be a key witness who will identify Runyon as the shooter and Draven as a co-conspirator.

Runyon, accused of being the triggerman, could get a death sentence if convicted. The government did not pursue the death penalty against Draven.

Cory Voss, a 30-year-old officer aboard the frigate Elrod, was shot five times at point-blank range the night of April 29, 2007, as he sat in his pickup outside an ATM in Newport News. His wife had sent him there to get money, but the account had only $5 in it. She had set up the account two weeks earl ier, prosecutors said, as part of the conspiracy. The ATM was in a dark, secluded area.

Runyon, armed with a .357 revolver, was waiting for Cory Voss that night, prosecutors said, and Draven was nearby. Investigators determined that by tracking his cell phone calls. Voss was found dead the next morning.

Investigators at first thought they were investigating a robbery-murder. But soon they were puzzled by misleading, contradictory answers Cat Voss had given them. So they began to tap her phone calls and read her e-mails. That led to the discovery of her affair with Draven and hints of a murder conspiracy, prosecutors said.

Runyon, who had met Draven at drug trial experiments in Baltimore and Philadelphia, agreed to kill Voss in exchange for $20,000, according to the indictment against him. He was never paid.

Defense attorneys say prosecutors have no direct evidence linking Run-yon to the killing. A videotape taken by the ATM camera shows a person dressed in black from head to toe climbing into the passenger side of Voss' pickup that night. His face cannot be made out.

Runyon's attorney, Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., told the jury that the government has no DNA evidence, no murder weapon, and no incriminating statements by Runyon linking him to the crime.

And after Cat Voss collected an initial $100,000 death benefit from the Navy, "not a penny of that money went to Runyon," Woodward said.

"The government's case is going to create more questions than it answers," he said.

Draven's attorney said his client has a similar defense.

Lawyer James Ellenson told jurors that Draven admits that he discussed with Cat Voss "bumping off" her husband, but he asked, "Is that going to be enough to convict?"

Ellenson suggested that Cat Voss had taken up with other men besides Draven and that she could have used one of them in her plot.

He also portrayed Draven, whose birth name is Anthony James Neff, as a troubled young man living in a fantasy world.

Draven, Ellenson told the jury, believes he is a descendant of Vlad the Impaler, a 15th-century Romanian prince, a brutal torturer better known as Dracula.

Ellenson also points to a phone call between Cat Voss and Draven while he was in the Newport News jail two months before the murder.

" 'I'm going to be taking care of it from here,' " Ellenson said she told him.

Ellenson called the government's case "circumstantial."

"The government will fail to meet its burden," he said.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com