Jury Finds Teen Guilty For Role In Coffin Looting

HAMPTON — Seventeen-year-old Brian N. Davis said six quarts of beer and the urgings of an older friend led him into the mausoleum at Hampton Veterans Memorial Cemetery one night last February.

Once there, he helped pry open the door, break through marble and concrete panels and stick his hand inside a coffin to grope for jewelry.

``I thought we were going to turn back,'' Davis told jurors during his trial on four felony counts Friday. ``But when we got there, it just happened.''

Davis was one of three people charged with raiding the coffin of John Miquel Marks to steal jewelry that family members had placed inside, then setting the body on fire to cover their fingerprints.

The jury found Davis guilty of one count each of breaking and entering, displacing a body and grand larceny. But jurors found Davis not guilty of arson. He testified that an older accomplice set the fire in the mausoleum that burned the body of Marks three days after the body was interred.

Circuit Judge Nelson T. Overton scheduled Davis' sentencing for Aug. 26 before the tall, bulky youth was handcuffed and led away, shaking his head softly.

The case was heard in circuit court because Davis was declared an adult for trial. Afterward, Overton set a $10,000 bond.

Earlier Friday, the two other men involved pleaded guilty to the same four felony counts. Sentencing for James T. Blake, 27, who worked as a groundskeeper at the cemetery and learned about the valuables, is scheduled for Aug. 29. Sentencing for Matthew Wright, 18, of Newport News, who drove the trio to the cemetery and acted as a lookout, is scheduled for Aug. 26.

Davis' own words were central to the trial. The youth made a written confession to police shortly after the incident in which he acknowledged his guilt.

``He did it. He knew what he was doing. He is the one who stuck his hands inside a coffin to feel around for jewelry,'' Wilson said, adding that the defendants ended up giving some of the jewelry to their girlfriends.

The deceased man's daughter, Marie Marks, said burying personal valuables was a tradition with her family, whose family roots are in Romania. Marks was known as ``king'' of the Peninsula-area gypsy community, family members have said.

Marie Marks said she was angry that Davis was not convicted of burning the body - an act that family members have said was more hurtful than stealing the jewelry.