Defense: Murder-for-hire suspects not linked to crime

NORFOLK

DNA and video surveillance photos failed to identify the shooter of Navy officer Cory Allen Voss, who was killed outside a Newport News credit union two years ago, experts testified Monday at the trial of two murder-for-hire suspects.

Investigators even enlisted the assistance of NASA scientists to help identify from surveillance tapes the dark figure who appears to jump into Voss' pickup while he tried to make a transaction at the credit union's ATM.

Voss, 30, was found shot to death in the parking lot of the Langley Federal Credit Union the morning of April 30, 2007. About 11:30 the night before, he tried to take cash out, but the account had only $5 in it.

His wife, Catherina Voss, has already pleaded guilty in the case, admitting that she set her husband up that night to be killed by a hired assassin so she could be with her lover and live off her husband's insurance money.

Monday was the first day of evidence in the trial in U.S. District Court of the suspected gunman, David Anthony Runyon, 38, and Voss' lover at the time, Michael Anthony Eric Draven, 28. Voss has admitted that she and Draven hired Runyon to kill her husband. Runyon could get the death penalty if convicted.

Federal prosecutors on Monday presented boxes of physical evidence, DNA test results and photos, which witnesses linked to the crime scene. Defense attorneys chipped away at those witnesses, making sure the jury understood that none of that evidence linked either Runyon or Draven to the crime.

Elizabeth Buda, a scientist with the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, testified that she tested blood found at the scene, hairs that Voss was clutching in his hand when he died, other hairs that were found in the pickup and in a black leather hat, and even a dried smear from someone who had been chewing tobacco discovered on the pickup's door handle.

None of it matched anyone other than Cory Voss, she said, though some of the items did not produce any DNA at all. No identifiable fingerprints were found either.

The jury was also shown 33 still photos lifted from video surveillance taken at the ATM between 11:31 and 11:43 that night. In the middle of the sequence, the pickup's inside light turns on, and a blurred figure appears to get into the passenger side.

Prosecutors told the jury that the state lab and NASA scientists tried, without success, to enhance the photos to identify the individual who entered the truck.

The region's chief medical examiner, Leah Bush, also testified that judging by gunpowder residue on Cory Voss' hands, he appeared to be trying to defend himself as he was shot five times.

When asked by a defense attorney if she could conclude who the shooter was, she replied, "Oh, no. Absolutely not."

Of the five shots that struck Voss, any one of three would have killed him. One severed his spine at the mid-chest level, which would have paralyzed him immediately from the chest down, she said.

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