exactly. the right height also, the right height, the right angle. and i can tell you, if i was going to murder someone with a crossbow, i d darn make sure it goes in on an angle. creamer wrapped a white towel now reddened with blood around the fatal wound on his wife s back. so he would get down and just i said affectionately, you know, just very caringly rearrange it and he would say, where s the ambulance. i need help. this was supposed to be a gift for a friend. it wasn t supposed to be here. then he would start to cry. good evening. our top story at 6:00, a bizarre death investigation in virginia beach. authorities say a woman died after she was shot in the back with an arrow. before long, the street outside was a parking lot. after the ambulance and the police cars came the local media. and pretty soon, just about everybody knew that this was not the first crossbow shooting in ken creamer s house. officers got a first look at
i saw anna laying there facedown with an arrow square in her back. but the true star of the case against ken creamer was the next-door neighbor. that retired naval commander, randall howes. ken is just kind of babbling, making noise or whatever, and saying, we need help, we need help now. remember, howes told us he saw something in the garage that jumped out at him much later. a detail about to assume a huge importance. as he stood there near anna s body, he testified, he was scanning the room, looking for that crossbow. on the far side of the refrigerator there was a cardboard box, and sitting on top of the cardboard box was the crossbow. i could see the front of it. mr. howes, i would like you to take a very careful look at that picture. you see a blue paper bag in front of the refrigerator in that picture, sir? yes, i do. was that blue paper bag in front of the refrigerator, as it is in that picture, when you went into the garage with mr. creamer? no, it wasn t.
crossbow, i found it to be in excellent mechanical operating condition, showing very little wear from very little use. the crossbow, he testified, simply could not have fired without someone pulling the trigger. but the expert only hit the weapon, he didn t testify by throwing it, which is what ken creamer said he had done. by the way, the defense, j.j. mason was an expert in guns, the kind that fired bullets. but did he know for sure about a crossbow, so how, asked the defense, could anyone rely on this expert s opinion? time for the defense to make its own case with some courtroom drama. judge, i m going to ask the court to indulge me with one more physical demonstration. defense attorney gregory turpin would somehow right here in court how the weapon could have fired accidentally. the right decision? well, maybe not. actually, may i ask if i could have the witness step down while i do this, please? mr. mason. just don t mess it up.
remember, there was lots of evidence at the trial that suggested that the marriage was strong, that ken and anna were quite close. but once in the jury room, some of those members said, evidence or not, they saw it a different way. i think she was a woman that was living under terror with great threat upon her. so he planned it? yeah. he wanted to kill her. i think he wanted to kill her in october. remain seated. and so the jury returned to the crowded courtroom and told the judge they were ready. in the case of the commonwealth of virginia versus kenneth creamer, we the jury find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. guilty. creamer twitched a little, looked down. they didn t believe him. he looked like a beaten dog. and among his few remaining friends, perhaps only these, the katzes, grieved for ken creamer. they had him guilty before anything was done.
involuntary residence here in the virginia beach county jail. it was more than a year later when police, still preparing their case, mind you, asked neighbor randall howes for another interview. they had the pictures, crime scene photographs that i had not seen. but now he saw something very disturbing. and right then and there randall howes knew he was about to play another important role in ken creamer s life. so i went, uh-oh. this means probably that my testimony will be key. and randall howes was absolutely right. a trial begins and the prosecution tries to prove that what happened to this young wife and mother was no accident. i determined that the manner of death in this case was homicide. when the crossbow incident continues.