Published: August 27, 2008 12:42 am            

Driver: Drug connection pressure to do killing

Testifies second attempt successful on Memorial Day ’07

FAIRMONT — The man who drove the alleged shooter in the murder last year of a man in Bellview told a Marion County jury Tuesday he and the gunman — friends since first or second grade, he said — were under increasing pressure from their Fairmont drug connection to do the killing.

Testifying for nearly two and a half hours against Donnell D. Lee, Stephen H. Podolsky, 24, described two attempts to kill Derrick D. Osborne, 22.

The first attempt, about a week before Memorial Day 2007, failed when they couldn’t find Osborne near the apartment in Bellview where he was staying, said Podolsky, a Mill Creek (Randolph County) native. The second, shortly before midnight on the holiday, succeeded.

Lee, 24, is being tried on murder and conspiracy charges for his alleged role in Osborne’s murder.

Podolsky said a failed drug-dealing scheme was driving him and Lincoln S. Taylor, also 24, of Huttonsville, his old friend and the alleged triggerman, into debt.

Taylor, who had the idea to get drugs from Lafayette Y. “Goldy” Jenkins Jr., 25, of Fairmont and sell them in Randolph County, owed about $2,000 to $2,200 to Jenkins, Podolsky said.

Lee was a close friend of Jenkins. Jenkins and Lee wanted to kill Osborne, Podolsky said.

As Taylor’s friend, Podolsky said he went along with Taylor’s drug-dealer scheme. He went about four times in the month before the shooting to give Taylor company while he dealt with Jenkins and Lee.

A self-described “Opie-head” or opiate-based addict since graduating from high school, Podolsky said he liked the idea of getting heroin and pain pills.

“We were getting ounces of cocaine and bundles of Ecstasy pills,” he said.

But “we (he and Taylor) were doing more than we were selling,” Podolsky said.

Jenkins and Lee were worried about Osborne, Podolsky said. Lee said Osborne had threatened to kill Jenkins, Lee “and their families and dogs,” Podolsky said.

Saying he wasn’t sure about the basis of the feud, Podolsky said the concern about Osborne shown by Jenkins and Lee seemed to grow with each passing week.

He also said he didn’t really think Taylor would go ahead and kill Osborne, saying he had seen his friend back down before from many fights.

Taylor was trying to rationalize the idea. It seemed, Podolsky said, that Jenkins and Lee were proposing it because of Taylor’s military background. Taylor had spent nearly three years at West Point before flunking out of the U.S. Military Academy.

Podolsky said in a “drive-by” some time before the shooting, Lee had showed them where Osborne was living in Bellview.

Lee also had given Taylor a description of Osborne, Podolsky said.

Osborne had moved to Fairmont from Columbia, S.C., in early 2007.

He was gunned down while literally “running for his life,” Marion Prosecutor Patrick N. Wilson said in his opening statement Monday.

Osborne was shot three times, said Dr. James Kaplan, the state’s chief medical examiner. Osborne collapsed in the backyard of a home on Highland Drive in Bellview. Although he had a faint pulse, he was not breathing when police and paramedics arrived. He died in the yard, not far from the apartment of his girlfriend, witnesses have said.

Podolsky and Jenkins have entered plea bargains to lesser charges.

Podolsky also recounted the slaying.

He said he stayed in Taylor’s silver Dodge Stratus, slouched behind the wheel until only his eyes were above the driver’s side window.

Podolsky had parked more than 100 feet away from the apartment where Osborne was staying. The car was facing away from the apartment.

Taylor was wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt given to him by Jenkins. Taylor also put on a pair of dark sweatpants in the car and a pair of cheap athletic shoes, several sizes smaller than his actual size.

Taylor also had a dark toboggan with a “baseball-sized hole in it” pulled down over his face, Podolsky said. Taylor went into the darkness to hide near the apartment, he said.

Although Taylor had told him not to use the cell phone, Podolsky did.

He was talking to an ex-girlfriend, he said. He saw a black man in a Saturn — the car Lee said Osborne would be driving — drive by him. The man appeared to be talking on a cell phone.

Several seconds later, Podolsky said he heard “six or seven gunshots” in the distance behind him.

The girlfriend did, too, asking him what was going on. Podolsky said he hurriedly told her he was all right, but that he had to go and would call her later.

The men drove off, trying to get back to U.S. Route 19 by taking “back streets,” Podolsky said.

He got lost, however. They ended up on the banks of the Monongahela River near Fairmont’s wastewater treatment plant.

Taylor took off his clothes and the shoes. Taylor piled them on top of some nearby railroad tracks and burned them. He was worried about gunshot residue on the clothes and himself so he splashed water on his face and arms, Podolsky said.

Taylor also took apart a .40 caliber Glock handgun that Jenkins had given him for the shooting. Taylor scattered the parts in nearby woods and the river, Podolsky said.

They waited until 3 or 4 a.m. They were “doing lines of heroin,” smoking cigarettes and talking about the shooting, he said.

At one point, they saw a spotlight from a vehicle near the top of the hillside entrance to the remote site. Taylor got his own .40 caliber handgun, chambered a round and crawled around to the front of the car, Podolsky said.

Podolsky said he was scared not only of a suspected police assault on them, but also of Taylor. The car didn’t come down the hillside, however.

Taylor finally got through on the cell phone to Jenkins, Podolsky said. They agreed to meet Jenkins at an apartment near the Fifth Street Gym.

E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.

        

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