Opening arguments begin in I-64 shootout trial

CHESAPEAKE

Seated on the witness stand, Ivy Vincent took the clear plastic bag and peered at a shiny metal band. She looked up and said, "This is my husband's wedding ring."

Tione Vincent wore it every day of their year long marriage, she said.

Prosecutors say it was found inside the pocket of his sworn enemy, Christopher "C.C." White, on the day Vincent died.

Prosecutors accuse Dedrion Short and Willie Simmons of joining White in the June 1 rampage that left Vincent and White dead and Chesapeake police Officer Sean Fleming wounded.

Prosecutors called six witnesses Friday, the first day of testimony in what is expected to be a week long trial. Short and Simmons are each charged with seven felonies, including first-degree murder.

Prosecutors contend that Simmons and Short joined White in a robbery plot, grabbing Tione Vincent at gunpoint in Norfolk.

Prosecutor D.J. Hansen said the three were responsible for Vincent's death and the shootout. Referring to Fleming, Hansen said, "Fortunately, he's still here today. He was wearing his bullet proof vest." Fleming is expected to testify when the trial resumes Monday.

Defense attorneys say prosecutors have little evidence linking Simmons and Short to the shootings. No eyewitnesses testified to seeing either defendant display or fire a gun.

Short's lawyer, Kurt Gilchrist, said White and Simmons kidnapped his client and forced him to cooperate at gunpoint as part of a revenge plot.

White suspected that Vincent's brother was behind the death of a friend of White's, Gilchrist said. Vincent and Short were friends - they grew up together in Norfolk's Berkley area, played basketball on the neighborhood courts and bowled in a Wednesday night league, he said.

Edward Mullen followed Ivy Vincent on the stand. He said he was standing in the 900 block of Liberty St. with his cousin Tione Vincent when a white van pulled up.

At one point, Mullen interrupted his testimony to complain that Short was making gang signs at him.

"I'm not doing anything," Short said from the defense table.

Mullen demonstrated for Circuit Court Judge John W. Brown. After the jury left for a break, Brown noted that Short was holding his hands in an unusual manner at his chest.

Short explained that he rarely wore a suit, and was trying to adjust it. Brown told him to keep his hands under the table.

Mullen recounted the last time he saw his cousin alive:

The two stood along Liberty Street a little after 3 p.m. on a warm spring day.

A white van pulled up, and White bounded out from a sliding side door. He wore a pair of orange gloves and gripped an AK-47 rifle. Simmons climbed out of the passenger's seat and stood by the van.

Vincent tried to run but White warned that he would shoot him. The two scuffled. White grabbed Vincent by his dreadlocks and shoved him into the vehicle.

Simmons slid the door closed, Mullen testified, and the van pulled away.

Chesapeake police Officer Bruce Ilapit took up the story from there.

He said he spotted the white van, pulled his squad car behind it and called for backup.

When another police car arrived, he said, the van took off. It cut off another truck and ran a red light.

The van nearly tipped over as it tried to make a right turn off George Washington Highway onto Interstate 64. The van crashed straight into the guardrail.

Ilapit said he saw three men leaving the crash. One held an automatic weapon. The men slipped over the guardrail and disappeared into the woods.

Soon, White re appeared in the center of George Washington Highway, firing an AK-47 at police and traffic, Ilapit said.

By then, prosecutors said, Tione Vincent was already dead in the backseat of the crashed van.

Louis Hansen, (757) 222-5221, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com