Virginia Beach murder case sent to grand jury

VIRGINIA BEACH

The case against a man charged with killing his grandparents in their Windsor Woods home last summer was sent to a grand jury Thursday.

Donta J. Brown, 36, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Mary and Eugene McNeely, both in their 80s. Police found the McNeelys bludgeoned to death July 5 in the home they shared with Brown and his daughter.

Few details emerged during Thursday's preliminary hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court about what happened inside the McNeelys' home before they were found.

However, family members described bizarre conversations with Brown and their mounting concern as they tried, unsuccessfully, to contact the McNeelys.

Betty Dorsey, Brown's mother, said her son called her a little before 3 a.m. on July 5.

The time of his call wasn't strange to her - "I was used to the paranoid calls," Dorsey said - but she could hear someone in the background talking about getting a plane ticket.

Later that day, the McNeelys' daughter-in-law, Emily McNeely, said Brown approached her at work with scratches on his arm. His eyes looked "almost like he was possessed," she testified. Dorsey and Emily McNeely also testified about their repeated efforts to get in touch with Mary and Eugene McNeely.

Dorsey said that after a string of unanswered phone calls, she went to the house. One time, she put their newspaper by the front door and rang the doorbell. No one answered.

When she came back and saw the paper where she had left it, she said, she knew something was wrong. She checked for signs of forced entry but couldn't find any.

When Dorsey peered through a window, she saw her mother lying on the floor and called 911.

A forensic scientist testified that Brown could not be eliminated from the list of possible DNA found on the fingernails of his grandmother.

A grand jury is scheduled to decide March 5 whether Brown's case should go to trial, according to Macie Pridgen, a spokeswoman for the Commonwealth Attorney's Office.

Sarah Hutchins, 757-222-5131, sarah.hutchins@pilotonline.com