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Compton house. In testimony Friday, Tommy Grohs said that he was worried that Mrs. Compton might be hurt, and went inside, feigning concern for her safety. Mrs. Compton asked that he drive her to her niece’s home in Jeffersonton, and Grohs agreed.
After Mrs. Compton left, Charles Larimer and Eastham reentered the house and stole a number of items, including several purses and a silver chest, according to Eastham’s testimony. They then drove back to the Larimer home and hid the loot under Susan Larimer’s bed. Eastham further testified that they used Miss Larimer’s room because she is a minor (she was 14 at the time) and that if they were caught she would get in less trouble.
Eastham also testified that Mrs. Larimer had visited him and Chucky Larimer at a motel in Warrenton where they had gone to hide out after the police began investigating the burglary. He said that Mrs. Larimer advised them “that it was their first offense; that nothing would happen. She told us we could leave and stay away until things cool off.”
Thomas Grohs’ testimony presented much of the same information as Eastham’s story. He said that when Eastham and the two Larimer children picked him up at the Amissville firehouse “Chucky said that he was tired of being broke,” and that his mother had suggested that they rob a house.
Defense counsel H. Dudley Payne, Jr., concentrated his crossexamination on impeaching the testimony of Eastham and Grohs. He hammered away at the fact that both had changed their stories each time they were interviewed by the police.
Both admitted under questioning that the original story which they told to Trooper H. A. Newlin and Rappahannock Sheriffs Deputy John Facchina was false. “I didn’t tell the truth . . . not much of it, if any. . . I told them the first things that came into my head,” Eastham admitted. He explained (in direct examination) that all of the conspirators had promised that “if anything happened they would go their separate ways and nobody knew anybody else.”
In his cross-examination of Grohs, Mr. Payne elicited an admission that two charges against him had been dropped in exchange for his testimony, and that he had not implicated Mrs. Larimer until some days after the crime.
Former Deputy John Facchina (now in State Police training) testified that both Eastham and Grohs told him in confidence shortly after the crime that Mrs. Larimer had knowledge of the burglary. However, on cross-examination by Mr. Payne Deputy Facchina acknowledged that Eastham had inquired about “making a deal” before he provided any information, and that neither Eastham nor Grohs had implicated Mrs. Larimer in their initial statements.
The defense case centered on the testimony of two of Mrs. Larimer’s children, Charles, 18, and Susan, 15.
According to Charles, the idea for the break-in came from Richie Eastham, as they drove around the
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