Small Town News

Leslie Small: I turned into a devil

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Defendant admits slaying elderly woman

Accused murderer Leslie Small took the stand March 31, the first day of testimony in his defense. Small said he did not mean to hurt 78-year-old June McCarson; he just wanted her money.

Small, 53, is on trial for murdering McCarson in her Lewes home Nov. 11, 2009. He pleaded not guilty to an indictment that charges him with two counts of first-degree murder for McCarson's death. If the jury finds Small guilty on either count, he could face the death penalty.

Small testified he was employed as a driver for Comfort Ride Express at the time of the murder. He was dispatched to McCarson's home around noon the day of the murder, he said.

Small said he took McCarson, a regular client, on a number of errands, including to Wilmington Trust Bank to cash a Social Security check. Small said he saw McCarson take a white envelope,

containing large bills, out of the tube at the drive-through. "She took the money out, counted it and put it back in her pocket-book," he said. "I wanted to take her pocket-book."

Small testified he had been smoking crack cocaine before taking McCarson on her errands and continued smoking crack throughout the day. "Literally all week, I'd just been getting high every day," he said.

Small said he often used drugs in the office of Comfort Ride with other employees. "I wanted to keep getting high," Small said.

After bringing McCarson home from Happy Harry's drugstore; about 3:30 p.m, Small testified, he carried McCarson's groceries out of the car and helped her up the front steps to her home in Donovan-Smith Mobile Home Park because it was raining. Small followed McCarson into her home and pushed her down, he said.

"I don't know what happened. I can't explain," he said. "She tried to holler, so I started choking her." Small said he was trying to silence McCarson. Then, he said, he went to a kitchen drawer and removed a pair of scissors.

"I started stabbing her," Small said. "I didn't really realize what I did until it was over. There was a lot of blood on me and stuff. There was blood everywhere." Small said he did not intend to kill McCarson when he entered her home; he only wanted her money.

"I never did nothing like that before.

"The craving was tearing me up. All I could think about was getting her pocketbook to keep getting high," Small said.

During his attack on McCarson, Small testified, her purse was sitting on a table beside the front door. He said he grabbed it on the way out.

Video evidence

Small's testimony matched much of the testimony presented

by prosecutors in a 20-minute video shown to jurors on the second and final day of state testimony.

In the video, Small tells a police detective he brutally murdered McCarson in her home and admits to smoking crack cocaine before and after the slaying.

The prosecution also presented witnesses who testified Small worked for Comfort Ride Express in Lewes as a driver. McCarson was Small's second fare of the day when he picked her up from her home in Lewes around noon. Prosecutors say Small drove McCarson on three errands, including a stop at Wilmington Trust Bank, where she cashed a Social Security check

A video of police interviewing Small about 3:30 a.m., Nov. 12, 2009, was shown to the jury. In the interview, Detective William

Porter asks Small how much cash McCarson had when.she left the bank.

"I assumed it was a lot. She said she had to cash a check," Small said. In the video, Small is noticeably thinner than he appears sitting at the defense table.

Instead of the pressed gray suit he wears in the courtroom, in the video Small is dressed in a wh.te, hooded jacket with black track pants and no shoes.

After returning McCarson to her home, Small said, he helped the slight, 78-year-old woman carry her groceries inside. Once he entered McCarson's house, Small said, the drugs took over. "I don't know what happened. I just lost it," he said.

"I tried to choke her," Small said on the video. "I looked for something to stab her with or something." Small said McCar-son moaned and struggled as he tried to kill her. "She just kept going," he said. "It was awful, man." Small said he could tell McCarson was dead when she stopped moving.

During the interview, Small told Porter he could not believe what he had done. "I'm still in shock from all this. It's like I turned into a devil, man," Small said.

In the video, Small says he grabbed a towel, the victim's purse and the murder weapon - a pair of scissors - and drove off. Covered in blood, Small said, he went to his home in Milton to change his clothes. He said he put his bloody clothes in a white trash bag that he later threw out of the window while he was driving. He also threw out the bloody towel and the victim's purse.

Police say they found the scissors in McCarson's driveway the day after the murder, just outside her front door. Police also recov-ered the towel and purse Small said he tossed from his car window. The trash bag of bloody clothes was never recovered.

Small was driving a Comfort Pjde Crown Victoria the day of the murder. "Police interceptor - go figure," Small said to Porter. Small said he spent $500 in cash he took from McCarson's purse on crack cocaine.

In the video interview, Small appears genuinely in disbelief. "I don't know what came over me. It wasn't me, man," he said. "I partly wanted to be caught. I can't live like that, man."

At the end of the video, Small balances himself on the walls of the narrow interview room to keep from falling as he rises from his chair.

During cross-examination of Porter, defense attorney Stephen Callaway asked if Small was mentally stable at the time of the interview. Porter testified Small said he was ready to talk. Callaway noted that Small had smoked $500 worth of crack cocaine before being taken into custody.

Assistant Medical Examiner Edward McDonough took the stand to explain injuries sustained by McCarson as a result of the murder. A look of disbelief washed over Small as prosecutors showed pictures from McCarson's autopsy. The victim's neck is riddled with black, gaping tears and large, purple bruises. Slits on McCarson's palms probably occurred as she tried to shield herself from the attack, McDonough said.

Callaway asked, during cross-examination, if the hand wounds could have been made while McCarson was unconscious, lying on the floor. McDonough said this was possible.

He said of the 20 stab wounds on McCarson's eyes, forehead, neck and hands, most were superficial wounds. Only a few of the stabs, including two that cut into her jugular vein and one that cut McCarson's carotid artery, contributed to her death. The scissors police say Small used to stab McCarson are blunt and only about 2.5 inches in length.

McDonough testified McCarson's spine was fractured in two places and a bone in her neck was broken, probably caused by manual strangulation. McDonough determined McCarson's official cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the neck

McDonough said McCarson was measured at 5-foot-4-inches, weighing 132 pounds with her clothes on. Police say at the time of his arrest, Small was 6-foot-4-inches tall and weighed 175 pounds.

Sarah Lindauer, DNA analyst at the Medical Examiner's Office, testified she found June McCarson's DNA on the scissors police say were used in the murder. McCarson's blood was found on the towel prosecutors say Small took from McCarson's house and threw out of the window of his car as he drove on Carpenter Road, off Route 9. Lindauer said she did not find Small's DNA on the towel or the scissors. She testified McCarson's DNA was found on the towel, the scissors and the inside of the front door of Small's Milton home.

At press time, testimony continued in Georgetown.





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