Jurors hear testimony from area van owners

Font Size:

By Dustin Lemmon | Thursday, December 21, 2006 1:11 AM CST | () comments

A man who loaned his girlfriend’s van to Ron Millbrook the night of Vincelina Howard’s slaying said he didn’t know before hand that the vehicle was going to be used in a drive-by shooting.

Mark Helton and his girlfriend, Virginia Schafer, testified in court Wednesday that they dropped their van off at Millbrook’s house in Rock Island the day of the shooting so he could use it to move a washer and dryer. Helton said he saw another defendant, Don White Jr., at Millbrook’s residence but didn’t know his name. He did not see the third defendant, Terrell O. Lobley.

Helton and Schafer, both of Rock Island, told two juries Wednesday that they didn’t know what was going to happen.

“I had no idea what the van was going to be used for,” Helton said.

Helton said Millbrook gave him cocaine in exchange for borrowing the vehicle.

Howard was shot Aug. 19 while attending a gathering of about 40 people at her grandmother’s house, 130 E. 12th St., Davenport. After the shooting, four suspects were caught on a video camera at United Neighbors as they abandoned the vehicle near Harrison and

8th streets.

On the video, the four can be seen jumping out of the van without bothering to put it in park. They run away while the van rolls backward, across 8th Street and into a neighboring yard.

White, 21, and Lobley, 18, are on trial in one Scott County District courtroom this week, while Millbrook, 20, is on trial in a courtroom next door. They each face charges of first-degree murder and willful injury. A fourth suspect, Rasheem Bogan, 15, is awaiting trial.

Jurors also heard testimony from an emergency room physician and emergency personnel who treated Howard the night she was shot. They said they struggled to get an intravenous line into Howard before she died. She was still moaning and moving her extremities after the shooting, they testified.

Mark Peters, a forensic pathologist who examined Howard’s body, said there were three gunshot wounds from one bullet. It entered beneath her right shoulder, exited above and re-entered through the back of her neck about two inches down from her ear.

Peters said the bullet severed the external collateral artery, and Howard died of hemorrhagic shock. Peters could not find the bullet in Howard’s body but said she likely coughed it out. There was no way for him to determine the type of bullet that struck her. Prosecutors say four guns were used in the shooting.

Prosecutors also presented testimony from crime scene technicians who recovered bullets around the house where the shooting occurred and shell casings in the abandoned van. They also heard from police who found boxes of ammunition outside Millbrook’s home and two guns in a vehicle at his house.

Jurors also heard that fingerprints from White and Millbrook were found on the abandoned van. When questioned by defense attorneys, Helton and Schafer acknowledged that they hadn’t washed the vehicle in a few weeks and Millbrook had received a ride from them about a month earlier.

Prosecutors are still expected to present a recorded statement that Millbrook gave to police as evidence at his trial, as well as testimony from a Scott County Jail inmate who Lobley reportedly confessed to after his arrest.

White and Lobley are using an alibi defense and plan to present testimony from witnesses who say the two were with them when Howard was shot.

There were about 40 people crammed into the courtroom for the Lobley and White trial at one point Tuesday, but attendance dwindled Wednesday with about 12 spectators in each courtroom.

All three defendants have shown little emotion since the start of the two trials, but each smiled at friends and family as they entered the courtrooms Tuesday. At one point, Lobley and White exchanged smiles.

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.

Background

During opening arguments Tuesday, prosecutors told jurors that Ron Millbrook, Don White Jr. and Terrell Lobley were retaliating for the April 19 murder of Andrell Hearn, 20, in Rock Island, when they were involved in a drive-by shooting at the home of Vincelina Howard’s grandmother.

Jurors heard testimony from a neighbor, passerby and a teenager parked at a neighboring gas station, who all witnessed different moments of the shooting. Howard’s twin brother and mother, who were with her when she died, testified that they heard gunfire and dropped to the ground.

Police testified that the bullets they found came from .45-caliber, 9 mm and .38-caliber guns.