Document text
Murder suspect pleads to other charges By Chris Bristol A Phoenix man accused of kicking another man in the head and killing him pleaded guilty Monday to related charges of domestic assault and car theft, setting the stage for his murder trial next week. Michael Edwin Terry, 30, is accused of killing Kevin Steven Elkin, 39, whose body was found Nov. 3, 1999, in a Phoenix-area orchard. Appearing before Jackson County Judge Patricia Crain, Terry admitted for the record that he assaulted his estranged girlfriend two days before the fatal confrontation with Elkin. The defendant also admitted that he stole Elkin�s car. Crain accepted the pleas, postponing judgment until after the trial. Terry�s defense attorney, Andrew Vandergaw, said his client wanted to plead guilty to everything but the murder charge because he is, in fact, guilty of everything but the murder charge. As for the murder charge, Vandergaw said, his client is guilty of killing Elkin � but not intentionally. "It�s called manslaughter," he said, "not murder." To date, authorities have remained tight-lipped about the case. Although they won�t discuss a possible motive for the killing, prosecutors have said Terry and his girlfriend were acquainted with Elkin. Terry was arrested after an intensive six-day investigation that began when a worker at the Crystal Springs Orchard discovered Elkin�s body. An autopsy revealed that Elkin had been dead for several days and that the cause of death was "blunt-force trauma" to the head. Prosecutors allege Terry kicked the victim. Authorities said Terry then stole the victim�s car, a yellow Chevrolet Camaro, only to abandon it a half-mile away after crashing into a ditch. It sat there for several days before it was stolen again. A 20-year-old Medford man and a 16-year-old boy were quickly arrested on charges they stole the already stolen car. Authorities said the second theft was a coincidence that had nothing to do with the murder case. According to court records, Terry had prior convictions for assaulting his girlfriend. In another strange twist, he appeared in court the day after Elkin�s body was found (but before he was identified as the suspect) on a drug charge. He remains lodged in the Jackson County Jail without bail. Jury selection in the murder trial is set to get underway next Tuesday. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.