1992 Murder in Virginia Beach
Teresa/Colorado
September 30, 2000
Man convicted of murdering housemate, eight years later
By JON FRANK
© 2000, The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH -- The former Navy man who helped his girlfriend poison and
then suffocate their housemate in 1992 was convicted of first-degree murder
Friday, more than eight years after the murder was covered up.
An eight-woman, four-man jury convicted David A. Deshazo after three days of
testimony, and recommended that the 31-year-old Henry County native receive
life in prison when Circuit Judge Frederick Lowe sentences him on Dec. 12.
The jury also convicted Deshazo of two counts of grand larceny and one count
of credit card theft.
Deshazo's former girlfriend, Roxanna Latham, will be tried on the same
charges next month.
Family members of the victim, 35-year-old Jerry McClendon, expressed relief.
``We are very pleased with the verdict,'' said Rebecca Taff, one of
McClendon's four sisters who attended the trial. ``We waited eight long
years for this.''
``We have one more trial to go,'' added Angela Holcombe, another of
McClendon's sisters.
McClendon allowed Deshazo to move into his home on Solar Lane in 1992 after
the two Navy buddies returned from an overseas deployment. McClendon also
allowed Latham, Deshazo's then-girlfriend, to move in so she could be near
Deshazo, who was preparing to leave the Navy.
But on Sept. 21, 1992, Deshazo and Latham turned against the man who was
providing them shelter. They used Latham's anti-anxiety medication, the
prescription drug Xanax, to spike a plate of pasta that they served to
McClendon, according to testimony this week.
After McClendon lapsed into a drug-induced coma the next day, the couple
made sure he would not survive by suffocating him with a pillow, Deshazo
testified.
Then they left the area, taking McClendon's body with them. But first they
emptied McClendon's bank account and stripped his home of its furnishings,
Deshazo said.
The couple drove a rented U-haul truck to Henry County in western Virginia,
where Deshazo's parents lived, and dumped McClendon's body on a trash heap
within walking distance of where they took up residence, according to
testimony.
His body was discovered by hunters on Oct. 2, 1992.
Police used sophisticated forensics technology to identify the body and then
to determine how long it had been atop the trash heap. But they were unable
to tie Deshazo to the murder, even though he and Latham immediately were
under suspicion.
It wasn't until Latham and Deshazo ended their relationship four years later
that police broke the case.
A Virginia Beach detective who had been tracking the whereabouts of the
couple visited Latham and obtained a confession in 1996, according to
police.
When Deshazo was questioned, he gave police a rambling, three-hour statement
that prosecutors used this week as the basis for the case against him.
In the statement, Deshazo said he helped kill McClendon because Latham asked
him to. He said Latham wanted McClendon dead because she believed he was
sexually harassing her with inappropriate comments and contact.
Deshazo testified that he watched Latham grind an entire bottle of Xanax
into a fine powder and then sprinkle it on McClendon's spaghetti. He said he
helped put McClendon in his bedroom after McClendon passed out.
The next day, Deshazo said, he held McClendon's wrists as Latham smothered
him with a pillow.
Defense attorney John Hooker argued that although Deshazo participated in
the crime, McClendon probably was dead already when the pair decided to
smother him on Sept. 22, 1992.
Hooker told the jury it was Latham's poisoned pasta that actually killed
McClendon, leaving his client, Deshazo, guilty only of being an accessory
after the fact.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Girlfriend blamed for putting drugs in food at trial
By JON FRANK
© 2000, The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH -- David A. Deshazo says he didn't believe his girlfriend,
Roxanna Latham, eight years ago when she threatened to ``drug'' their
housemate, Jerry McClendon, by poisoning his spaghetti.
Deshazo thought Latham was only venting her frustration over living in close
quarters with McClendon, a man who she claimed was sexually harassing her
with inappropriate comments and ``touchy-feely'' contact.
But mostly Deshazo shrugged off the threat because it was the kind of
statement that Latham, who took medication for emotional problems, had made
before.
``It sounded like just another Roxanna caper to me,'' Deshazo testified on
Thursday during the third day of his first-degree murder trial in Virginia
Beach Circuit Court. ``She had threatened in the past.''
So Deshazo did nothing when Latham dumped a full bottle of her prescription
drug Xanax into a plastic baggie, wrapped it in a washcloth and hammered the
pills into a fine white powder, he testified.
Deshazo said it wasn't until the next day that he realized Latham had
sprinkled the powerful drug over the pasta that she fed to McClendon later
that evening. ``I didn't put the drugs in Jerry's food,'' Deshazo said. ``It
was Roxanna.''
Deshazo spent more than an hour on the witness stand Thursday trying to
convince jurors that he was unaware for almost 18 hours that Latham had
followed through on her threat to drug McClendon. If any of the jurors
believe that, the 31-year-old Deshazo may be acquitted of first-degree
murder.
Prosecutors believe that Deshazo was a willing participant in the murder of
his Navy buddy on Sept. 21, 1992. They also maintain that Deshazo helped
Latham smother McClendon the next day, on Sept. 22, 1992, while the
35-year-old Navy electrical technician lay in a drug-induced coma.
The drug dose that McClendon ingested was more than enough to kill a person,
according to Dr. Arthur McBay, a forensic toxicologist from Chapel Hill,
N.C., who testified on Thursday.
McBay testified that McClendon's body contained a Xanax level of 0.45
milligrams per liter when tests were done on the body two weeks after
McClendon died. That's a level almost 20 times greater than the therapeutic
level of Xanax, and approximately four times the level found in some suicide
victims, McBay testified.
McBay said the drug level would have been even higher an hour after
McClendon ingested the Xanax.
Deshazo admitted Thursday that he used McClendon's ATM card to obtain money
from a bank, and stole furnishings from McClendon's house.
He also admitted to participating in the murder cover-up in an effort to
protect Latham, whom he said he loved.
``I didn't want her to get in any trouble,'' Deshazo testified.
He told jurors on Thursday how he and Latham rented a U-haul truck and drove
the body to Henry County in western Virginia on Sept. 25, 1992.
The body was discovered on Oct. 2, 1992, by hunters on a trash heap near the
home of Deshazo's family.
Police initially were unable to tie the couple to the body. Once their
relationhip ended, however, police detectives interviewed Latham and
obtained a confession.
Both Deshazo and Latham were arrested in 1998.
Latham will be tried on the same charges next month.