Virginia Beach murder trial opens

VIRGINIA BEACH

Three weeks after 18-year-old Isiah Jones was shot to death outside a child's play center in April 2009, the lead investigator in the case sat across a small table from the man he was about to charge in the crime.

For three hours, police Detective Ray Pickell had questioned Sheldon Swilling about an unrelated - and far less serious - incident. He took down some basic information: Swilling's birth date, his Social Security number, his address.

Then Pickell read a list of charges: first-degree murder, attempted robbery, use of a firearm in a felony. He stood and walked toward the door of the small interview room at police headquarters.

"Where is this coming from?" Swilling asked.

Unless he waived his right to have an attorney present, the detective told him, the conversation was over.

On Wednesday, more than two years later, jurors watched the recorded interview on the opening day of the murder trial against Swilling, now 22.

On the video, Swilling mostly sat without speaking, putting his face in his hands, staring at the table as Pickell tried to coax a confession.

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Philip Hollowell said during opening arguments that Swilling ultimately confessed and the recording would prove it.

Defense attorney Afshin Farashahi disagreed.

"It's not Sheldon's own words," he told the jury. "The detective put words into Sheldon's mouth."

He called Pickell "relentless" in his questioning. More than once, the detective knocked on the table. "Do you know what that is? Opportunity is knocking," Pickell said. "I've seen killers before. I've looked into killers' eyes for 10 years. You ain't a killer. Because I can see it in your eyes."

"You made a mistake... it's time to be a man," he continued. "Did you mean to kill that guy?"

Swilling mumbled he did not. Moments later, he said: "I'm not a killer." Then, "I'm sorry for everything."

Pickell told Swilling he was not trying to ruin his life. Swilling answered: "I know you're not trying to. I already did that."

On the day of the murder, Jones and a Cox High School classmate, Daniel Suruga, picked up Jones' car from an auto shop. Then they went to the Lynnhaven Crossing Shopping Center to pick up Jones' girlfriend from her job at the Jumpin' Monkey.

As Jones and Suruga waited in the car, a man approached them, pointed a semiautomatic gun and demanded Jones hand over his necklace, a long silver chain with a cross attached, Suruga testified. When the man grabbed for the chain, Jones told him to take it, he said.

"Either him or the assailant got it off," Suruga said. Then he heard the gunshot. Jones stumbled out of the car and fell to the pavement.

He died at the scene.

A forensic expert testified Wednesday that a shell casing recovered from the crime scene was fired from the same weapon as a spent shell casing found outside a residence at Scarborough Square days before Jones was killed.

Another witness, Shawn Carter, testified the gun belonged to Swilling.

Swilling had come to his home one evening that April acting nervous, Carter said. He said "something happened with a guy in a car. He thought he shot someone. I think he was trying to get some money off him, or a chain."

No fingerprint or DNA evidence tied Swilling to the crime scene, Farashahi told the jury. Suruga was not able to identify Swilling as the shooter.

"What happened to Isiah Jones is a tragedy," the attorney said. "The question is whether or not the commonwealth charged the right person."