BURLINGTON, Ky. – The mother of convicted murderer David Dooley is optimistic that the sensational and sexually-charged testimony at his retrial hearing will get him a new trial.
Elizabeth Yates accused the lead detective and the prosecutor of lying and withholding evidence after the five-day hearing ended Monday and suggested their testimony at a retrial couldn't be trusted.
“I think it went really good for David,” Yates said. “I don't know who would testify at this point. If they all lied - you know, covered things up - what good are they?”
Det. Bruce McVay and Commonwealth Attorney Linda Tally-Smith contradicted one another about defense claims that evidence was withheld from the first trial. The two admitted under oath last week that they had a sexual relationship after the trial.
A surveillance video played at the hearing last week showed an unknown man tugging on the Thermo Fisher Scientific office door late on May 28, 2012. That’s where Dooley and Michelle Mockbee worked – and where Mockbee’s bludgeoned body was found the next morning. Dooley’s trial lawyer, Tom Pugh, testified last week that he had never seen the video, and it wasn’t admitted at the trial.
McVay testified Monday that he told Tally-Smith about the man and the surveillance video before the trial.
“I remember having a conversation with her about what we had found,” McVay said on the stand.
Tally-Smith has insisted that McVay didn’t tell her about the video until after the trial. Dennison read aloud a letter she said Tally-Smith intended to give McVay about the video.
“I get to live with the worry that someone on the defense side will find it at some point and that we'll all wind up in trouble over it and the entire case will be tainted over it,” Tally said in the letter.
Tally never gave McVay the letter but offered an explanation about it Monday.
"I was incensed because the most important thing to me was that I believed that he put something in a case report that was not true based on a conversation I had with him earlier," Tally-Smith testified.
Dooley's current attorney, Deanna Dennison, questioned Tally Smith about why she didn't document her conversation with McVay about the surveillance video.
“You're saying here that you didn't document something very important about this case?” Dennison said.
Tally-Smith testified last week that she did not withhold evidence.
After Monday's hearing, Mockbee's sister, Jennifer Schneider, said Dooley still doesn't deserve a new trial.
“Those who are close to the case and know the facts do not think he deserves a new trial based on a close relationship between the prosecutor and the lead detective,” Schneider said.
Dooley has always insisted he didn’t kill Mockbee.
Circuit Court Judge J.R. Schrand will decide if there will be a retrial.
