Trial set to close in 21-year-old killing

It’s all over but last-minute statements and final deliberations.
Attorneys in the murder trial of 68-year-old Alvin Lee Morris ended the fifth day of testimony and arguments Friday and will prepare their closing statements and summations to present to the Albemarle County Circuit Court jury on Monday.

Morris is accused of killing Roger Lee Shifflett, a Scottsville shopkeeper, 21 years ago. Shifflett was 38 when he was shot to death in his Route 20 convenience store on June 20, 1988.
The father of five was found on the floor near an open cash register that displayed a recent sale of $1.25. A bag of Hardee’s food sat nearby, and an open container of Tender Vittles cat food was found near the victim’s Volkswagen Beetle in the parking lot. About $135 was missing from the store.
The prosecution rested its case late Thursday in a day that lasted until almost 10 p.m. Defense attorneys stepped to the plate Friday morning, but their case was cut short by a judge’s ruling that thwarted the testimony of at least seven witnesses. The witnesses would have testified that police had considered suspects other than Morris and that evidence in the case could point to others than Morris.

James “Bubba” Bates, a private investigator, testified that he interviewed a woman named Christine Cook who told him she had stopped at Shifflett’s Southwind Market that fatal morning before 6 a.m.
“She noted a gray or blue Chevy Impala parked to the left side of the front of the building with its windows down,” Bates told the court. “She started to go inside, but noticed that the store lights were out. She got nervous and concerned and got back into her car in the parking and left around 5:50 a.m.”

Shifflett is believed to be have been killed sometime around 6 a.m.
During the four days of testimony, prosecutors presented evidence they believe shows that Morris wanted to start life anew with a new wife and family, prompting him to kill Shifflett, an acquaintance, divorce his own wife, marry the dead man’s widow and raise three of Shifflett’s children.
Defense attorneys, however, pointed out that there is no tangible evidence that Morris committed the crime and questioned methods used in gathering evidence and the chain of custody for bullet fragments found at the store and in Shifflett’s body.
Testimony showed that Morris had discussed divorce with his wife prior to Shifflett’s shooting and that several weeks after the shooting he moved out of his house. He was soon seen driving Shifflett’s pickup and dating his widow, Barbara Shifflett, with whom he had been “good friends” prior to the killing.
He later divorced his wife and married Barbara Shifflett.

Evidence collected at the scene of the slaying included several cigarette butts from Salem cigarettes. DNA tests conducted on one butt matched DNA supplied by Morris. Forensics expert Wendy Cohn testified Thursday that the match excluded all but one person in an estimated 6.5 billion.
“Essentially, he is the only person in the entire human population who could match that [DNA profile],” she said.
Defense attorneys noted Friday that no fingerprints were found tying Shifflett to the scene and that the cigarettes were found in the parking lot.
Detectives interviewed Morris three times in the months after the killing and many of his stories were “inconsistent” or fabricated, detectives testified. One fabrication included Morris telling a state police investigator that a store employee had confessed the killings to him, a statement Morris later said he could not remember making.

Morris told investigators in taped interviews in 1988 and again in 2008 that he never “pulled the trigger” and that he and the victim had “never had cross words.” He admitted to wanting to start his life over after decades of alcoholism and “running around” ruined his relationship with his wife and sons.
On a tape from a 2008 interview played in court Thursday, Morris expressed relief that DNA was being taken and compared.
“I know everybody thinks I’m guilty and my only hope is that something will come and prove I didn’t do it and DNA is my only hope for that,” Morris told investigators. “DNA is going to be my salvation. Me and my maker are the only two people who know I didn’t pull the trigger.”
Court will reconvene Monday morning for final statements from the prosecution and defense. Then the court will provide the jury with instructions drawn up by attorneys for both sides and approved by the judge on how to deliberate and what evidence should be considered.
The jury will then go behind closed doors to come to a verdict on the charges of first-degree murder, robbery and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.