The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, May 26, 1982-Page 3
DESCRIBE SCENE AFTER SHOOTING
Policemen testify at Kelly trial
By GEORGE ADAMS
Two Ann Arbor police officers
testified yesterday that they found a
shotgun and shells in the room of Leo
Kelly minutes after the shooting deaths
of two Bursley dormitory residents last
spring.
Testifying at Kelly's trial, Officer
Albert Barbow said he also found a
gas mask and materials that may have
been used to make a fire bomb, which
Kelly allegedly threw down the hall-
way just before the shootings.
A NUMBER of University students
also told the jury yesterday that they
saw someone emerge from Kelly's
dorm room and fire several shots, but
they could not identify Kelly as the
assailant.
Kelly is accused of the shooting
deaths of Edward Siwik, 19, of Detroit,
and Douglas McGreaham, 21, of
Caspian last April 27.
Answering questions from
Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian
Mackie, Barbour said that he and his
partner, Officer James Stimack,
arrived at Bursley at 6:15 a.m., only
moments after the incident reportedly
took place and proceeded to the sixth
floor of Douglas House to investigate.
Barbour said that they entered the
hallway, and "a few yards from the
south entrance, I saw two bodies on the
floor. One had a massive chest wound
and the other a massive wound in his
back."
He stated that he and Officer Stimac
proceeded down the hallway "to get ev-
ery one out and locate the perpetrator,"
when they saw a number of empty
shotgun shells on the ground near the
center of the hallway.
OFFICER STIMAC testified that
evidence gained by speaking to resident
Michael Neumann led him to believe
that the shooting suspect went into room
6219 (Kelly's room).
"We took defensive positions and I
knocked on the door," he said. "I said
that we were the police and that we
wanted to toak to him (Kelly). The first
thing I noticed when he opened the door
were numerous 12-guage shotgun shells
on the floor and a shotgun on the bed."
Barbour, Stimac, and Detective John
Atkinson all testified that they found
the shotgun, ammunition, a homemade
pistol fashioned of wood and metal that,
according to Barbor, "couldn't fire a
shot."
LLOYD SCOTT, a hall resident, said
that he was with Siwik when he saw a
black male coming out of Kelly's room.
"It really happened so fast I really
couldn't see faces," he said. "I yelled
See POLICE, Page 11
Helms
to attempt
to block
voting act
extension
WASHINGTON (AP)- Against
overwhelming odds, Sen. Jesse Helms
plans to lead a small band of hard-line
conservatives in an attempt to block ex-
tension of key provisions of the 1965
Voting Rights Act, Senate sources said
yesterday.
The North Carolina Republican has
told colleagues he will organize a
filibuster to fight renewal of the civil
rights law even though President
Reagan has announced his support for
the legislation.
Sixty-six senators are sponsoring the
voting rights bill, which will be debated
when the Senate returns from a week-
long Memorial Day recess in June. A
similar version has passed the House
by a wide margin.
AN ADDITIONAL 12 or 13 senators
have indicated they will vote for the
compromise extension worked out
among civil rights organizations,
liberal Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-
Mass.), and Charles Mathias (R-Md.),
and Robert Dole, a moderate
Republican from Kansas.
Ralph Neas, chief lobbyist for the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights,
said he takes Helms' threat seriously,
but believes the Senate ultimately will
defeat his efforts.
"We are confident that we can beat a
filibuster," Neas said.
HELMS, IN a letter to other senators,
said he will oppose "to the maximum
extent possible" a version of the voting
rights extension approved earlier this
month by the Senate Judiciary Com-
mittee.
Important enforcement provisions of
the voting rights law expire in August,
so there is pressure for quick Senate ac-
tion.
Civil rights leaders say they need a
tough voting rights law to guarantee the
voting rights of millions of blacks and
other minority voters. At least 1 million
new minority voters have been
registered since enactment of the law
17 years ago.
BenchednDily Photo by JACKIE BELL
What better way to spend a cloudy, spring day than lounging on a park bench? This city dweller found the prospect dif-
ficult to resist yesterday in Liberty Plaza.
Police question suspect in Texas
By CHARLES THOMSON
Two Ann Arbor police detectives
have flown to Houston to question a
suspect in the still-unsolved 1980 mur-
ders of three Ann Arbor women.
Ann Arbor Police Chief William Cor-
bett said the detectives were
questioning 28-year-old former
Detroiter Coral Eugene Watts in con-
nection with the 1980 murders of Ann
Arbor resident Shirley Small and Un-
iversity students Rebecca Greer Huff
and Glenda Richmond. Corbett said the
detectives flew to Texas Monday after
they were contacted by the Houston
authorities.
According to Houston police, Watts
was arrested on charges of kidnapping
and attempted murder Sunday morning
after he tied up a Houston woman with
coat hangers and tried to drown her in
the bathtub of her apartment.
Watts also bound the woman's
roommate, police said, but she escaped
and summoned the police. Watts was
arrested as he was fleeing the woman's
apartment.
Corbett said the detectives were sent
to Houston to check into similarities
between the two incidents. "There are
some similarities in the crimes," he
said. At least one similar incident, like
the three Ann Arbor murders, occurred
early on a Sunday morning.
The first Ann Arbor victim, Small, 17,
was found dead near her home in the
Georgetown Townhouse on April 20,
1980. On July 13, 1980, the body of
Richmond, 26, was found outside the
door to her Ellsworth Road apartment
building. Huff, 30, was found dead on
the steps of an apartment building on
South Maple Road on Sept. 14, 1980.
Although some reports have
suggested that police no longer believe
the three murders are related, Corbett
refused to ignore the possibility.
"We're not ruling out anything," he
said. "There is stilla possibility that all
three were committed by the same per-
son."
Asked if police were questioning Wat-
ts for all three murders Corbett said,
"Let's just say he's a suspect."
All three Ann Arbor women were
stabbed in the chest area, but none ap-
peared to have been sexually molested.
There was no evidence of robbery.
Corbett refused to give a physical
description of Watts or to say whether
Watts' appearance resembled a com-
posite drawing released by police in Oc-
tober 1980. Watts was reportedly a sub-
ject of the police investigation before he
left Michigan.
The two Ann Arbor detectives now in
Houston, Staff Sgt. Paul Bunton and Lt.
Dale Heath, were both involved in the
original investigation of the three mur-
ders.