Virginia Beach/Norfolk, Va. - There is no physical or forensic evidence tying anyone to the murder of off-duty Norfolk Police Officer Victor Decker. That statement came out in court on Monday.
The day he was brought back to Virginia Beach and charged with murder, federal inmate Raymond Lewis Perry insisted police built their murder case solely on jailhouse snitches.
“Jailhouse liars. They're not jailhouse snitches, because if you snitch, it is possible you are telling the truth. They're jailhouse liars,” Perry says.
And it turns out, he was right. In a court hearing, Perry's lawyer Jennifer Stanton told the judge prosecutors have nothing other than the words of jailhouse snitches trying to get their sentences reduced.
She told the judge, "This is, and is alone, a snitch case."
Perry is one of two men charged with robbing and killing off-duty Norfolk officer Victor Decker in 2010. Decker was with friends at a Virginia Beach go-go bar. In the parking lot near his pickup truck, he was shot once in the head. The case was unsolved for a year and a half when police suddenly announced an imprisoned felon was to blame.
NewsChannel 3’s Mike Mather: “Did they say we got DNA? We got the gun?”
Perry: “No. They didn't say none of that. And I am sure they are not going to have none of that on me.”
And he's again correct.
Stanton told the judge police have, in her words, "zero forensic evidence."
No fingerprints, no DNA, no ballistic matches.
Stanton said police found a shell casing, but never found a gun. Prosecutor Colin Stolle did not dispute anything the defense attorney told the judge. The prosecution has relied so far on several felons who have all admitted they're looking for reduced sentences. Prosecutors are seeking a death sentence.
One of the main jailhouse witnesses has admitted he’s lied repeatedly in this case.
Today, prosecutors told the judge the story the witness told in an earlier hearing when he insisted he was not telling the truth, is a story they cannot verify.
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