Beach man not guilty in slaying of uncle's fiancee

VIRGINIA BEACH

A jury acquitted a 20-year-old man Friday in the slaying of his uncle's fiancee.

After a three-day trial, Joshua Heim was found not guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Julie Bass on Nov. 30.

Police found Bass, 46, bludgeoned in the master bedroom of her Indian Lakes home.

Bass had just flown in from California the night before, and Heim had picked her up at the airport, according to court testimony.

Heim had been living in the home in the 1300 block of Faraid Lane while his uncle and Bass were in California.

Prosecutor Gordon Ufkes said Heim wasn't happy that Bass told him he would have to leave the home.

"The last words that Julie Bass told the defendant is: 'You're out of this house tomorrow,' " Ufkes said.

He argued that Heim went into the victim's bedroom, placed a plastic bag over her face as she slept, and hit her repeatedly with the claw end of a hammer, smashing her skull.

Ufkes added that by Heim's own admission he and Bass were the only ones in the house that night and that it was locked. No one else knew she was in town and there was no sign of forced entry, he said.

Defense attorney Moody E. "Sonny" Stallings Jr. questioned why police didn't consider other people as suspects in the case.

Heim had told a roommate who had been living at the house that he would have to leave because Bass was returning, Stallings said. That roommate had a key to the house and his cell phone was found in the toilet, Stallings said.

The cell phone records weren't checked. Stallings also said that DNA found on the plastic bag that was on Bass' face didn't match Heim's.

He criticized police for not sending other items found at the scene to the lab for testing, arguing that they didn't want more evidence found at the scene with DNA that didn't match Heim's.

"This could have all been cleared up if they had done their job," Stallings said.

He also pointed to a torn-up copy of a birth certificate and shot record for Bass' child, which were found in a wastebasket in the home. He questioned whether Bass' ex should also have been considered a suspect.

This was the second time Heim stood trial in Bass' death.

A judge declared a mistrial in the first trial last month after a juror was arrested for drunken driving and didn't show up for deliberations.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com