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| Woman stabbed to death in Villa Heights |
Dennis Lamont Dorsey |
Thursday, August 6, 2009
By AMANDA BUCK - Bulletin Staff Writer
The case against a man accused of stabbing a Villa Heights woman to death last June was sent to Henry County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Dennis Lamont Dorsey, 36, of 1123 Chatham Heights, Martinsville, faces a second-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Annette Kaye Turner Vaughan. She was found stabbed near her home at 30 Erwin St. shortly after 2 a.m. June 10.
In Henry County General District Court on Wednesday, witnesses described hearing Vaughan and Dorsey screaming and yelling at each other in the hours leading up to her death.
Jasmine Hairston, Ashley Talley and Danny Gamble, all of whom lived near Vaughan at the time, each testified that Vaughan and Dorsey were fighting that night.
“They argued a lot,” Talley said. “It was typical.”
A few minutes after midnight on June 10, Vaughan called 911 about Dorsey. Henry County Sheriff’s Cpl. Wayne Davis, who responded to the call, testified that he arrived to find Vaughan standing in her doorway, tossing a plastic grocery bag and a package of T-shirts into the driveway.
Dorsey stood nearby, Davis said.
Vaughan yelled to the corporal to get Dorsey “off my property before I have to kill him,” Davis testified.
The officer said Dorsey told him and another deputy, Randolph Keys, that Vaughan had his money, and that she had pulled a knife on him. However, Vaughan said she had nothing of Dorsey’s other than what she had thrown into the driveway, Davis said.
After Davis threatened to arrest Vaughan for disorderly conduct, the officers spoke with Dorsey and watched him leave the property carrying the plastic bag with the T-shirts inside, they testified.
Hairston and Talley testified that a short time later — neither was sure exactly how long — they heard the fighting resume. At that point, Dorsey cursed at Vaughan and threatened to kill her, Talley said.
Hairston testified that she tried to call Vaughan’s phone but couldn’t get an answer. Eventually, “I heard a scream, one last scream,” Hairston said. “I went down there.”
When she arrived, Vaughan’s front door was standing open, Hairston said. As she walked toward the kitchen, Hairston said she saw a knife sticking out of the frame of the back door.
In shock, Hairston went back outside, where she said she glanced toward the neighboring house and saw Vaughan on the ground.
“Her eyes was open,” Hairston said. “Her whole back was bloody.”
Hairston screamed for Talley, who ran to the scene and began trying to help Vaughan.
“She was barely breathing,” Talley testified. “I cradled her and held her head up.”
Talley held Vaughan until rescue workers arrived, she said. They took the 46-year-old to Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Deputy Keys was among officers who responded to a call about the stabbing. He testified that he told the others about his experience with Vaughan and Dorsey earlier in the night, and officers began looking for Dorsey.
Martinsville police officers found Dorsey near Nelson Ford on Commonwealth Boulevard. Keys arrived a few minutes later and saw that Dorsey was wearing the same dark pants but had changed from a white T-shirt to a tan one, he testified.
After officers took him into custody, Dorsey told them he had cut himself while he was at Vaughan’s home earlier that day, said Investigator Steve Raines. Raines said no cuts were visible on Vaughan’s hands or arms, but he did have one small cut on his chest.
Dorsey said he got that cut at work, Raines said.
Dorsey also told Raines that he changed his clothes while he was at Vaughan’s home, Raines said.
Investigator Greg Lowery, who also responded to the scene, testified that officers took the knife that was found in the door frame into evidence. It was a 12-inch knife with an 8 1/2-inch blade and a plastic handle, Lowery said.
The knife was sent to the state lab where it awaits DNA analysis, he added.
Public defender Bill Bourland, who represented Dorsey, argued that the commonwealth did not present enough evidence to warrant sending the case to circuit court.
“Nothing put Dennis Dorsey at the scene,” Bourland said. “We really don’t know what happened.”
Commonwealth’s Attorney Bob Bushnell disagreed, arguing that Dorsey had motive — he told Davis and Keys that Vaughan had his money — and he was heard threatening her. Also, although Dorsey told officers he did not go back to Vaughan’s home after he spoke with Davis and Keys there around midnight, his plastic bag, “or one that is identical to it,” was found at the house after Vaughan was killed, Bushnell said.
Judge Morgan Armstrong ruled in Bushnell’s favor and certified the case to circuit court, where it will be considered by a grand jury.
Armstrong noted that Vaughan was stabbed with enough force to pierce one of her lungs, which collapsed.
She was stabbed in the back, Bushnell said. According to previous reports, she suffered three wounds, but only one was fatal.
Dorsey appeared in court dressed in an orange jail uniform. Bushnell said after the hearing that investigators are not sure what kind of relationship Dorsey and Vaughan had. The evidence did not show that the two were romantically involved, he said. |
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