Man pleads guilty in beating death of 90-year-old

NORFOLK

The man who clubbed her with a long-handled flashlight pulled at the wedding ring Anna Wheeler had worn for almost 50 years.

The attacker hit Wheeler as she slept in her bed, waking her. Across the hall, Wheeler's 90-year-old husband, Marion, had also been bludgeoned while in his bed.

Marion never awoke. The beating caused multiple skull fractures and tore off most of his right ear. He died on May 2, four days later. Anna, 86, survived her injuries, which were no less serious: She had fractures all over her face and head. All the fingers on both hands were broken, and her left ring finger was displaced.

The attacker did not get her ring. It was removed from her hand at the hospital.

Those details came to light in Circuit Court on Thursday, when the man accused in Marion Wheeler's death and Anna Wheeler's beating pleaded guilty to those and other crimes. Brian Jordan, 30, faces a maximum sentence of three life terms plus 40 years and a $400,000 fine at his sentencing, scheduled for January. He also pleaded guilty to a similar attack on another elderly woman in her home on Cape View Avenue the day before the crimes against the Wheelers.

Jordan said little during the hearing, speaking only to answer questions from Judge Jack Doyle. Jordan rocked slightly as he stood. His lawyer, public defender Katherine Jensen, sought to have graphic photos of the crime scene and the Wheelers' injuries sealed, but Doyle declined to do so.

Outside the courtroom, the victims' families declined to comment.

Prosecutors Derek Wagner and Lori Galbraith submitted a summary of evidence they would have presented if the case had gone to trial.

In the first crime, on April 27, Jordan knocked on the door of the Cape View Avenue victim and asked to speak with her husband. The woman, who is a widow, said he wasn't home. Jordan pushed past her, threw the woman to the floor, and demanded money. He wore surgical gloves and held his hand over her mouth. After the woman directed him to money in her purse and hidden in her closet, Jordan dragged her through her home, bound her with duct tape and hit her on the head with a flashlight. The woman told police that Jordan used his shirt to wipe the doorknob and dead bolt.

She later picked Jordan's picture out of a lineup.

The next day, police investigating the attack at the Wheelers' home got a call from a man who had found two bloody latex gloves and a bloody shirt lying in the street a short distance away. Tests later showed DNA from Anna Wheeler and Jordan on the gloves and shirt.

Police talked with a friend of Jordan's who said he had confessed the crimes to her. She said Jordan demonstrated to her how he choked "some lady," talked about having money "and how easy it was to get."

Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2287, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com