Trial begins in 1992 slaying of four

Kim Smith

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

Richard Powell was not the only one with a motive to kill Samantha Scotti, Deputy Special Public Defender Bret Whipple told jurors Wednesday.

In the weeks before the 24-year-old was gunned down, Scotti ratted out no fewer than nine other drug dealers and each could have wanted revenge. Moreover, the three people she lived with also had their share of enemies, Whipple said.

Eight years after Scotti was gunned down inside her Wardelle Street apartment, Whipple told jurors Wednesday that Powell did not kill Scotti or her friends.

Wednesday was the first day of Powell's capital murder trial. He is charged with first-degree murder in the May 1, 1992, deaths of Scotti, Lisa Boyer, 26, Jermaine Woods and Stephen Walker, both 19.

All four were found shot to death in an apartment at 532 Wardelle St. after a 4-year-old girl who witnessed the shootings called police.

Deputy District Attorney L.J. O'Neale told jurors that Powell and a friend, Vernell Ray Evans, killed Scotti because she set up a drug buy with Powell to gain favor with police, who had arrested her on larceny charges.

The other three, O'Neale said, were killed because they were witnesses.

O'Neale said jurors will get to see a videotape of the 4-year-old talking to a psychologist about the slayings and who committed them. One of the men, she said, was "Little Ray" Evans and the other was a man with "Scary Eyes."

The girl not only identified Powell as Scary Eyes from pictures, but also at Powell's federal trial on drug charges, O'Neale said. In addition, Powell told several people beforehand he was going to kill Scotti and bragged afterward about his actions.

Whipple, however, told jurors that while Powell may have said he wanted Scotti dead, he did not kill her.

Using a slide show, Whipple showed jurors the jail booking photos of more than a dozen people acquainted with the victims. Each one, he said, had a motive to want them dead, ranging from jealousy and revenge to greed.

Particularly noteworthy are those Scotti informed on, Whipple said. One of them was Scotti's own boyfriend, who landed in jail just one month before she died.

"Over the next few weeks you will be thrust into an environment you are unaware of," Whipple said. "You will be thrust into an environment filled with drugs, illegal activities and violence."

Whipple said the young girl's account should not be relied upon. She initially said Little Ray and another man, Everette Flowers, committed the murders. She also called Walker "Scary Eyes" because he had what is sometimes called a "lazy eye."

Flowers was engaged in a violent love affair with Boyer and just one day before the murders he put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her, Whipple said.

The trial was expected to continue this morning before District Judge Michael Douglas.