VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Prosecutors said Tuesday they will seek the death penalty against Raymond Lewis Perry, accused of killing an off-duty Norfolk police officer in 2010.
Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Colin Stolle made the announcement during a motion hearing Tuesday in Circuit Court.
A grand jury in November indicted Perry, 21, on a capital murder charge. He also is charged with first-degree murder, robbery and two counts of using a firearm while committing a felony.
Victor Decker, 25, was found shot to death off Oceana Boulevard on Oct. 26, 2010. Decker was last seen leaving a breast cancer fundraiser at the Atlantis Gentlemen's Club, about a block away.
Perry was charged last summer. He had been serving a 97-year sentence in federal prison for a series of robberies committed the month before Decker was killed.
He has maintained his innocence in media interviews.
Killing a person while carrying out a robbery is a potential capital offense under state code.
In the past five years, the Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has sought the death penalty in at least three cases. All three men received life sentences.
Virginia has nine men on death row, including two Norfolk cases, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Anthony B. Juniper was sentenced for killing his ex-girlfriend, her two children and her brother in 2004. In 2007, Thomas A. Porter was convicted in the death of Norfolk police Officer Stanley C. Reaves.
While prosecutors still seek the death penalty, the number of death sentences has been declining in Virginia and the United States, said capital defender Douglas Ramseur of the Office of the Capital Defender for Southeastern Virginia.
Also at Tuesday's hearing, Perry's court-appointed attorney, Gregory Turpin, asked to withdraw from the case. He is running for Virginia Beach commonwealth's attorney and said he didn't want his campaign to interfere.
"I don't think that's fair to my client," Turpin said at the hearing.
Judge Stephen Mahan granted the request, and new counsel for Perry will be formally appointed at a hearing Jan. 30.
Stolle is also running for the city's top prosecutor position.
Kareem Hasson Turner, 24, is also charged in Decker's death.
He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in March.
Copyright 2013 - The Virginian-Pilot
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
