State Could Face Hurdles in Bid to Convict Fawley of First-Degree Murder.  Jan. 19, 2006.

By  Seamus McGraw  

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(Crime Library)  Mathews County, Va. — As Ben Fawley, the photographer who has allegedly admitted to a role in the death of Taylor Behl, prepares for his first court appearance, perhaps as early as next week, prosecutors in rural Mathews County are keeping a tight lid on details of their case against him.

"I can tell you that they're being very tight-lipped," said George Peterson, the Richmond attorney who has been guiding the slain Virginia Commonwealth University co-ed's mother through the grueling investigation.

Attorney George Peterson

Legal experts agree that Commonwealth Attorney Jack Gill, the prosecutor for a county that has seen only a handful of homicides in the past decade, faces a number of hurdles in his bid to prosecute the 38-year-old Fawley on a charge of first-degree murder. The body of the victim, a 17-year-old freshman who vanished in September only to be found a month later dumped on a farm in Mathews County, was so severely decomposed that authorities have reportedly been unable to determine a cause of death.

Commonwealth Attorney Jack Gill

And though a grand jury, basing its decision largely on the testimony of a single Richmond police officer, returned an indictment alleging that Fawley knowingly and purposefully murdered the woman, legal experts have consistently argued that a trial jury may need to see more than the cards the prosecution is already showing.

That is particularly true since Fawley, who has been diagnosed as bipolar, has reportedly admitted to authorities that he played a role in the young woman's death. According to a statement he gave to authorities last fall, over the objections of his then-attorney, Fawley said that the young woman had been accidentally strangled during rough sex.

Unless that statement can be challenged by material evidence or the testimony of reliable witnesses, it is possible that a trial jury could find that Behl's death was an accident, or that Fawley is guilty only of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Gill, who like other key players in the case is under a gag order that severely limits what he can say about the case, could not be reached Thursday for comment.

But in a brief statement to reporters after the grand jury handed down its indictment Tuesday, Gill steadfastly declined to discuss the evidence investigators had gathered.

"I don't want to say anything that might undermine the ability of a jury to decide," the prosecutor said, "and I don't want to comment on the evidence in the case."

"I think it is pretty clear that the grand jury thinks we have enough for first-degree" murder, he said.

Fawley, who is being held on an unrelated child pornography charge in Richmond, is tentatively scheduled to appear in court in Mathews County next week, where he will face arraignment and an attorney will formally be named to represent him. Once that is done, the defense will have an opportunity to review the prosecution's case and the evidence will likely become public. It was not immediately clear whether lawyer Chris Collins, who had represented Fawley in the days after his arrest, would remain on the case.

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