Crimora man guilty of first-degree murder in wife's slaying
STAUNTON — A Crimora man was convicted Thursday by a jury in Augusta Circuit Court on a charge of first-degree murder for the killing of his wife last summer.
Dwayne L. White, 42, showed no reaction when the verdict was read.
Kelin Pacheco-White, 38, was shot inside the couple’s home at 256 Morton Road shortly after midnight on July 19, 2021. Evidence showed she was shot 12 times.
During closing arguments, Augusta County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Holly Rasheed asked the jury to use its commonsense when deliberating.
“This is obvious,” she said.
Rasheed argued the killing was premeditated, a component of first-degree murder, and showed the jury some of the threatening texts White sent his wife hours before she was shot to death.
Rasheed said White, who’s previously been convicted of assaulting his wife and admitted on the stand that he was unfaithful during their marriage, was not going to be taken back by his spouse like so many times before in the past.
In her last text, Pachecho-White told her husband that she and her daughters would be fine without him. “I’m done,” she said.
“He couldn’t handle that,” Rasheed said to the jury. “Because if he couldn’t have her, nobody could.”
Rasheed also took exception to White claiming he shot his wife during a struggle over a gun that he testified she pulled on him. “He had his hand on the trigger and he pulled it 12 times,” Rasheed said.
The prosecutor also noted the victim was shot four times in the back. “She was not even facing him. Why would he come in here and lie? To save himself,” she said.
In his closing argument, defense attorney Vaughan Jones said the investigation into the killing was flawed, and said authorities never tried to find the gun in question. He also said there was no premeditation, and noted surveillance video at the home showed White did not have a gun in his possession when he arrived but did have one when he left the residence.
Jones also reminded the jury that White had his cousin drive him to the home, and said it showed the killing was not premeditated. “Why’d he bring a witness?” Jones asked.
Based on his own testimony, White didn’t bother to check on his wife or immediately call 911 after the shooting. Instead, he exited the home, got in the car with his cousin and left the scene, tossing both his cell phone and his wife’s about 200 yards away on Morton Road, where they lived.
An autopsy revealed she had multiple .40-caliber gunshot wounds to her back, legs, side, chest, shoulder, left arm and neck. She had 13 gunshot wounds in all, with one of the bullets lodging in her neck after going through her arm, evidence of a defensive wound, prosecutors said.
“This was not mutual combat,“ added Augusta County Deputy Commonwealth‘s Attorney Lorna Port. “Because only one person was hurt, only one person was shot.”
White went to the Staunton Police Department several hours after the shooting, evidence showed. Soonafter, an Augusta County deputy was sent to the home and found Pacheco-White's body in an upstairs laundry room.
Pacheco-White graduated from Wilson Memorial High School in 2001 and attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg on an academic scholarship. She was employed by the Hershey Chocolate Company for 18 years.
White was previously sentenced to a five-year prison term for a 2015 shooting where he fired a gun into a home in the 400 block of Montgomery Avenue in Staunton. He was released from prison in November 2019, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections.
White’s cousin, Isaac Davis, is charged with being an accessory after the fact to a homicide. His trial is scheduled for December.
White, who was also convicted on a gun charge, will be sentenced Nov. 15. He faces the possibility of life in prison. White was initially charged with second-degree murder before the charge was upgraded.
Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Crimora man guilty of first-degree murder in wife's slaying
