Persistence pays off in cold case convictions

PORTSMOUTH

As time passed, Clement Erskine's family lost hope that his killer would be punished.

Almost eight years after Erskine was gunned down while working the night shift at a Churchland Getty Mart, the robbery and shooting remained unsolved.

Investigators had pulled at threads linking two Portsmouth brothers to the 1999 murder, but had come up short.

Nearly two years ago, Jan Westerbeck decided to take a closer look. There were lots of pieces in the thick file, the detective said. Maybe all police needed was to put them together.

Time can take a toll on the search for a murderer. Memories fade. Witnesses relocate or even die.

When Westerbeck reopened the Getty Mart case, it was one of 147 unsolved homicides in the city dating to the 1960s.

Some police departments have cold case divisions dedicated to unsolved crimes. In Portsmouth, Westerbeck oversees the files.

She reviews the old murders and recruits already-overworked detectives and forensic pros willing to volunteer extra time to put new eyes on stale trails.

Fortunately for police, advances in DNA analysis and other forensic science offer fresh clues.

In recent years, for example, Terry McCurdy, a Portsmouth forensic technician, has helped solve a half dozen cases - including the 1994 murder of a 77-year-old man stabbed in his kitchen. The suspect left drops of blood trailing out the door. In 2001, his DNA caught up with him.

With the Getty Mart shooting, Westerbeck had a hunch that a little more shoe leather could solve Erskine's murder.

Clement Erskine was the youngest of a large family from the Virgin Islands. By 1997, he was living with a sister and her family in a Churchland apartment.

His ambition was to work in the entertainment industry. He had planned to become a manager for some musicians he knew.

Friends referred to him as the "big man with the big smile," according to a tribute printed for his memorial service. He had worked at the Getty Mart for more than a year.

Oct. 11, the night Erskine was shot, was supposed to be his day off, his sister Connie said. He had planned to take her children and his godchildren out. Then he got a call to come to work.

A few hours later, she talked to him on the phone and had planned to go by the store that evening. But she fell asleep. A neighbor woke her up, knocking on her door and bringing bad news - there had been a shooting at the Getty Mart.

Erskine was 26 when he was killed. Police said he was shot in the head at close range with a shotgun.

When Westerbeck decided the case warranted another look, the lead detective who had originally worked the murder was no longer with the department. But his work had turned up two suspects - Galondale Vann and his brother, Julius. As police tried once again to find Erskine's killer, the brothers were in prison on unrelated charges.

Evidence gathered by the detectives who first worked the case gave the new team plenty of leads. They had shotgun shell casings taken from the floor near the store counter where Erskine was slain.

Behind the store, police found $61 beside a fence, apparently dropped as the robbers scrambled to get away.

"We found broken shrubbery where they climbed over the fence," said Carl Sequeira, a forensic detective who worked the scene that night.

Sequeira had pulled off a portion of the fence board and treated it with chemicals. That turned up a palm print, photographed for safe keeping.

Less than a month after the shooting, Julius Vann was arrested by Portsmouth deputies for failing to appear in court on a traffic charge. He provided police a reason to suspect he was involved: While in jail, he told a fellow inmate about the Getty Mart robbery, according to the detectives.

Two days after Julius Vann's arrest, police stopped his brother, Galondale, on a traffic violation. During a search of the car, they found a pistol. After the Getty Mart robbery, the pistol had been reported to police as stolen from the store.

At that point, the case against the Vann brothers seemed to be building. But police encountered a problem. The officer who arrested Galondale Vann apparently didn't follow proper procedure. A judge ruled the gun could not be admitted as evidence, a prosecutor said.

A charge against Galondale Vann for possessing a stolen gun was not prosecuted.

The case stalled for a couple of years.

Then, in early 2002, police received another lead. Julius Vann, who was in jail on a federal firearms charge, told another inmate about the Getty Mart shooting.

This time, he offered more information. Julius said his brother had been the triggerman and later pawned the murder weapon - a Winchester shotgun - at a Portsmouth gun store.

By March 2002, police had tracked down the shotgun. Lab tests confirmed that it matched the shell casings found at the Getty Mart.

Police tracked the purchase of the shotgun back to August 1999. Galondale Vann, then 22, had bought it at a Chesapeake Wal-Mart, about six weeks before Erskine was killed.

Still, it wasn't enough to arrest Galondale Vann. Police couldn't prove he had used it to kill the Getty Mart clerk.

Before Westerbeck recruited a fresh team to go after the killer, nearly four years had passed since the latest development. They began turning over old ground.

"We interviewed a lot of people, which was what helped us set the case up," said Detective Robert McDaniel, who volunteered to pick up the trail.

The investigators went back to the two inmates Julius Vann had talked to in 1999 and 2002. Both gave detectives details that only someone at the Getty Mart that night would have known. And both picked Julius Vann from a photo lineup as the man who had revealed those secrets.

The palm print found on the fence behind the Getty Mart was matched to Galondale Vann.

Finally, police felt they had the evidence to charge the Vann brothers. Julius was still a federal prisoner. Galondale was serving time on a malicious-wounding conviction. Both were nearing the end of their sentences.

The Vanns seemed surprised when detectives showed up to question them about the Getty Mart, McDaniel said.

"But they got away for a long time."

In the end, it wasn't one break or missing piece that solved the 1999 case, but a "combination of everything involved," McDaniel said.

Much of the case was built on Julius Vann's jailhouse confessions and circumstantial evidence - including the recovered shotgun and Galondale Vann's palm print.

It was enough to persuade the Vanns to take a plea deal, said Douglas Ottinger, a deputy commonwealth's attorney.

On Jan. 31, Galondale Vann, now 30, pleaded guilty to the murder. He got a 40-year sentence, with half of it suspended upon completion of 20 years probation.

Julius Vann, 34, entered a plea to robbery and got a 15-year sentence, suspended upon completion of 15 years probation.

The Getty Mart murder was closed. Detective Westerbeck crossed a cold case off her list.

Janie Bryant, (757) 446-2453, janie.bryant@pilotonline.com