After various witnesses testified about the materials obtained during the search of Wesley Earnest’s girlfriend Shameka Wright’s home, including the gun box, personal photo albums of Wesley and Shameka, and various documents (particularly those relating to bills and delinquent loans), real estate agent Johnny Maddox of Country & Mountain Realty next took the stand and told the jury that he’d met the defendant in June 2007, and that on June 15, 2007, Wesley had verbally authorized Johnny to sell the lake house for $2,150,000, but Wesley never showed up to sign the document, and that no sale ever happened.
• • •
When the jury entered the box on the sixth day of the proceedings, their first witness of the day was Neil Phillips. Neil said that he’d first met the defendant in August 2005 when Wesley rented a room in his home. The tenant told him that he was taking a new position in Chesapeake and his wife would be joining him soon.
Neil said he’d evicted his boarder after Wesley said, “Bitches like my wife and your wife should be dead.”
Joey Sanzone started his examination of the witness with a question about the criminal activity of Neil’s son. That prompted an objection from the Commonwealth. This time, not only was the jury sent out of the courtroom but so was the witness. Sanzone argued that the real reason Wesley had gotten into an argument with Neil was because of the son’s activities, but Nance countered, “I’d be afraid this would open a Pandora’s box, because from my understanding from Mr. Phillips, the reason for him asking Mr. Earnest to leave had nothing to do with that arrest, but a whole slew of actions by Mr. Earnest that we’re attempting not to go into.”
Sanzone objected again saying that the end of the tenancy agreement was not a disagreement about Neil’s wife. The judge, however, decided that the defense could not bring up testimony about the son’s arrest.
• • •
Sonya Stevens, a teacher at Oscar Smith Middle School, stepped into the witness box. She said that she’d met Wesley during the 2005–2006 school year. “He patrolled the hallways and helped out in various capacities [ . . . ] he kind of did everything.
“I’m one of the coaches,” she said, “and he had an interest in marathons and just athletics in general [ . . . ] My track athletes were fond of him, and he would stay after. And then after I was done coaching, we would run occasionally. And then at that time, we would just talk about life in general, mainly his life because it was more interesting.” She noted that he told her he wasn’t married, and had never been married, because he’d “‘never found the right one.’” She’d seen Shameka Wright from afar at a work Christmas party but had never met her or Jocelyn.
“Did Mr. Earnest speak of his finances at all?”
“He did while running. He talked about mainly some of his properties. He had this wonderful estate [ . . . ] on Smith Mountain, some land [in] California.” Sonya recalled, “He said he did not have to work [for a living] . . . He chose to do that because he likes the children.”
Nance asked if, after Wesley left after the end of the academic year and went to Great Bridge High School, she’d had any further contact with him.
“Several times,” she said. “He would show up sometimes at my track meets because we shared a track, called every now and then. He would call and say, ‘Hey, coach.’ And he would call or text ‘I’m getting together,’ ‘I’m doing this,’ ‘you’re invited.’ It was just kind of an all call type of thing where he just invited old friends.”
“Now, I want you to turn your attention to late December 2007 to early January 2008. Did you have occasion to reach out to Mr. Earnest during that time period?”
“I did . . . I heard through the grapevine that his wife was killed. I heard it was a car accident. And I texted him and just said I’m sorry to hear about your wife . . . I got a response back that said, ‘What are you talking about?’”
On cross-examination, Joey Sanzone established that the witness was only a casual friend of Wesley Earnest and that they did not have the type of relationship that encouraged deep conversations or the exchange of confidences.
The next witness, Molly Sullivan, was also a teacher at Oscar Smith Middle School who knew Wesley in that same time frame. Her retelling of what Wesley said to her was nearly identical to Sonya’s testimony.
On cross-examination, Joey Sanzone tried to get Molly to say that her relationship with Wesley was shallow and none of their conversations were deep or personal. Molly, however, would not agree with that assessment.
• • •
Chesapeake Police Department detective Wade Satterfield sat in the witness box next. He was the youth services officer at Oscar Smith Middle School the year that Wesley was there and they became friends. With him, too, Wesley had indicated he was a “small-time millionaire” and had never married because he’d never found the right woman.
“I asked him what the right one was [ . . . ] The type of person he described was an African American female.”
Joey Sanzone began his questions of the witness. “Detective Satterfield, you and Wesley went fishing together. You did a lot of things together down at the beach in Chesapeake, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And y’all would joke around; tease each other, things of that nature, too?”
“Yes.”
“And the term ‘small-time millionaire’ sounds a little bit like a comedy term [ . . . ] Did you know whether he was being serious or kidding with you . . . ?”
“He never showed me his financial records,” Satterfield said.
“That’s my point.”
• • •
Officer Wallace Chadwick with the City of Chesapeake was the school resource officer at Great Bridge High School for about seven years. “We routinely worked together with him being the assistant principal and me being a police officer at the school. We worked together on cases, discipline-related. Some of them reached the criminal justice category. We would get involved together, interviewing kids and things of that nature.”
“And pursuant to working together, did you come to know Mr. Earnest’s interest in law enforcement?”
“Yes, we talked frequently, you know, about things about my job and things like that. And he was also involved in some of the community things that our police department offered [ . . . ] We had a program set up called the Citizen’s Police Academy [ . . . ] where citizens come in and kind of get a feel for what police officers do. For example, I’m on the dive team [ . . . ] we taught a section on what the dive team does.”
“Did you ever have occasion to meet Shameka Wright?”
“One time . . . It was at a retirement party that both of us had attended—most of the school staff was there—for one of the principals that retired . . . I didn’t physically meet her. I saw her.”
“Did you later ask Mr. Earnest who she was?”
“Yes [ . . . ] He just said it was a chick he had met in the mountains, and he called her a mountain chick.”
Joey Sanzone wanted the witness to tell the jury about an incident at the school that happened on December 20, but Chadwick could not remember it, saying that after ten years of doing the job, individual events and the dates when they happened were not something he could specifically recall.
• • •
Investigator Mike Mayhew returned for a repeat performance on the stand. The first item covered was the interview that Mayhew had with Wesley on December 21, 2007, at 6:15 P.M.
“And that would be the day after the discovery of Jocelyn Earnest’s body?”
“That is correct.”
“And who was present during the course of that interview?”
“Mr. Earnest, his attorney Mr. Sanzone, myself, and Investigator Babb.”
“Now, prior to speaking to Mr. Earnest did you disclose to him or any other person the discovery of an alleged suicide note?”
“No, sir, I did not.”
“Or did you discuss the themes contained within that suicide note?”
“No, sir, I did not.”
“Either before or during that interview did you discuss with Mr. Earnest how Jocelyn was killed?”
“No, sir, not during the interview. It was later that I was asked and it was told how she was killed.”
“And what did you tell him at that point?”
“That it was a gunshot wound.”
“Did you discuss the date you believed she was killed at that time?”
“No, sir, I did not, except that she was found [on] Thursday, December twentieth at twelve o’clock noon.” Nance took Mayhew through how the investigators had asked Wesley what his schedule had been like that week, and about the truck he’d borrowed.
Joey Sanzone, on cross, attempted to establish that Wesley had many sources to learn facts about the case before his initial interview with law enforcement: news accounts, his conversation the night before with Investigator Babb, and other people who might have been interviewed before him about the case. Mayhew acknowledged that some of the information could have been legitimately obtained, but other details could not.
Sanzone asked, “Now when he came in, it was perfectly voluntary.”
“Yes.”
“He didn’t have to.”
“Correct.”
“And he agreed at that point to provide fingerprints or any other information or any other samples you might need.”
“Yes, he did.”
“The conversation you had with Mr. Earnest, you [ . . . ] asked if she was ever suicidal, didn’t you?”
“Yes. It was asked if she [had] ever spoken about suicide or [ . . . ] harming herself [ . . . ]”
“And he told you [ . . . ] years ago . . .”
“No [ . . . ] He said the year before [ . . . ] I think his correct wording was ‘several times she has stated to me she wanted to commit suicide.’”
Sanzone pulled out the document of the interview and asked him to read from it. “And then what did he say?”
Mayhew read the question and its answer: “‘When is the last time she told you that?’ ‘I guess it would have been right after the summer of 2005 when I left and went to Chesapeake.’”
After some back-and-forth about the truck and the holster found in the gun safe, Sanzone handed the witness over to Nance for redirect. Nance said, “Mr. Sanzone asked you about media reports and your knowledge of them.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Are you aware of any that referred to this being consistent with suicide?”
“No, sir.”
“Or the finding of a suicide note?”
“No, sir.”
“Or the themes that may have been contained in that suicide note?”
“No, sir, there was not.”
Sanzone now stood for recross and asked: “But you do know what may have been rumored in the general public?”
“No, sir, it’s general public.”
“And you don’t know what rumors Mr. Earnest may have heard?”
“No, sir.”