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Police indict man for 1993 murder

By Amanda Kerr

JAMES CITY -- After years of cajoling witnesses and chasing dead-end leads, police at last have enough evidence to indict a suspect in connection with the 1993 murder of Rodney Nathaniel James.

A grand jury last week issued a direct indictment against Robert Anthony Oliver Williams, 32, aka "Black Mikey," charging him with second-degree murder in connection with James' death.

Late on the night of June 25, 1993, Rodney James and his cousin were walking near the corner of Mooretown Road and Clark Lane when five gunshots rang out. The cousin ran. James was struck once in the heart by a .32-caliber bullet. He stumbled more than 150 feet before dying at the scene.

James, who was the father of a little boy, had attended Lafayette High.

Witnesses told police that James was attacked by three men, but fear of retaliation kept them from divulging more information. Physical evidence was scarce.

Within a year, the case went cold.

In an interview this week, James City deputy police Chief Stan Stout said the murder was likely the result of a "drug deal robbery gone bad." James died clutching a bag containing 12 rocks of crack cocaine.

Stout investigated the case at the time.

"Over the course of 13 years after that, we would get a tip once in a while or get a large drug bust and start debriefing [suspects] and they would give us a little information about it," Stout recalled. "We would follow up, but we just couldn't put it together until fairly recently." He did it by linking bits and pieces from various drug cases.

In 2005 Stout decided to reopen the case. Investigator Pat Murray was assigned to work it full-time, and for good reason.

A year earlier, Murray had successfully charged Kupenda Young with the 1994 killing of Keith McLaughlin, whose body was found on Jolly Pond Road. Young was convicted of second-degree murder and abduction.

Progress was slow on the James case. Then last year, James City Police launched a joint investigation of Williams with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Virginia State Police, and narcotics investigators with the Newport News Police.

Stout said that Williams, who was 17 when James was killed, had been a suspect in 1993 but there just wasn't enough evidence at the time to arrest him.

Another suspect in the case was killed in Newport News several years ago. A third suspect, who was with Williams the night of the shooting, has been cooperating lately.

"In the process of working the investigation, we developed a lot of information through the drug investigation," Stout said. "We just followed that path until we were able to get enough witnesses that we were able to put a case together."

Williams, of Sun Haven Court in Newport News, was arrested in May after a federal grand jury indicted him on multiple narcotics and weapons violations. He is being held at the Portsmouth City Jail.

After discussions between the U.S. Attorney's Office and assistant commonwealth attorney Nate Green, the murder case against Williams was presented to the Williamsburg-James City grand jury last week.

Green said he decided to pursue an indictment on second-degree murder because of limited evidence and preliminary negotiations with Williams' attorney. Williams is expected to plead guilty to second-degree murder on Oct. 10.

Stout said that a break in a cold case is not unusual. Time can often soften witnesses who were once reluctant to talk to police.

"A lot of people in that drug culture have grown and have families and have gotten away from the street mentality," he said. "They are more willing to cooperate. We found that was the case with the Keith McLaughlin murder.

"Some of them have moved away and are not in that neighborhood anymore and feel a little safer," Stout continued. "We still find people who wouldn't talk to us simply because they are afraid to talk to us."

Cold cases hinge on persistence.

"We can't bring the victim back, but hopefully we can bring some closure to the family," Stout said, adding that James' family was updated on their son's murder case a few months ago. The family has also been told about Williams' indictment.

"We don't ever really give up," Stout said. "Cases might become inactive for a while but we never close them out. It's a matter of finding people and spending the effort to do it."

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Police indict man for 1993 murder

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