Prosecutors could lose the benefit of two women who say Darrell Rice is the man who accosted them along U.S. 29 in 1996 because they were hypnotized after making their initial reports to police.
Rice faces trial in Prince William County on abduction, robbery and malicious wounding charges in a Feb. 24, 1996, attack on Woodbridge resident Carmelita Shomo--an assault prosecutors say is linked to the infamous "Route 29 Stalker" cases that occurred between Charlottesville and Culpeper.
Rice's defense team contends the women's identifications are barred from court by Virginia law because they were made after--in this case, six years after--the women were hypnotized.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Will Jarvis argued yesterday that the identifications were unrelated to the hypnotisms and should be allowed. He said the women were hypnotized in 1996 only in an effort to recall the license plate on the pickup driven by the man who flagged them down along U.S. 29 and suggested they were having car trouble.
The two women are among six the prosecution says will point to Rice as the man who accosted but did not harm them along U.S. 29. The two in question--Anne Wesley Fulcher and Janet Doyle Arsenault--identified him in a photo lineup in 2002, according to court records and statements made in court yesterday.
Circuit Judge William D. Hamblen declined to rule yesterday on whether the hypnotisms preclude the women's identifications.
Shomo also identified Rice from a photo spread, but the defense has called her identification into question.
She told police she was driving home from Manassas Mall along State Route 234 near Dumfries late in the evening when a man in a dark pickup flashed his lights at her and beckoned her to pull over. After she did, the man claimed sparks were coming from beneath her car and offered her a ride.
During the drive, the man started screaming at her, pulled out a screwdriver and tried to sexually assault her, police have said. Shomo fought back and was pushed out of the moving truck, injuring her ankle.
Rice, a 37-year-old former software programmer from Maryland, is scheduled to go on trial next month in the Shomo attack. He is already serving a 135-month federal prison sentence for the attempted kidnapping of a female bicyclist in Shenandoah National Park in 1997.
He came to the attention of police investigating the U.S. 29 stalkings and Alicia Showalter Reynolds' death in 2002 after being indicted on murder charges in the deaths of two hikers in Shenandoah National Park. Those charges were dismissed last year.
Authorities have consistently linked the 29 Stalker cases to the slaying of the 25-year-old Reynolds, who disappeared March 2, 1996. Her car was found along U.S. 29 in Culpeper later that day; her body was found two months later in a logging area off State Route 3 in Lignum.
Rice has not been charged with Reynolds' killing, and Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert has said he will not bring up her death in the Shomo case. But the defense has said it may introduce it to argue that if Rice can't be linked to Reynolds, he is neither the 29 Stalker nor Shomo's attacker.
The defense has repeatedly suggested that serial killer Richard Marc Evonitz killed Reynolds and was the 29 Stalker. Evonitz, who killed himself in June 2002 as police tried to arrest him, was identified as the killer of three Spotsylvania County girls in a timeframe not far removed from the 29 Stalker cases.
During testimony yesterday, clinical psychologist John Boyd of Charlottesville said hypnosis can heighten imagination and make someone more vulnerable to suggestions. He also said someone's "recollection after hypnosis could be false or it could be true."
Boyd testified he hypnotized Arsenault, but she said nothing during the session. Arsenault later testified, however, that she had indicated to Boyd letters and numbers of her stalker's license plate through hand signals.
She did not hesitate when saying she had previously identified Rice and when asked to point him out in the courtroom.
"From the time you were stopped, has the image of the person been clear in your mind?" prosecutor Jarvis asked in wrapping up his questioning.
"Yes," she answered.
To reach PAMELA GOULD: 540/657-9101 pgould@freelancestar.com