Suspect in death of Ark. TV anchorwoman says police tricks, threats led to his confessions

Suspect in anchorwoman killing blames police trick

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The man charged with killing an Arkansas TV anchorwoman told a judge Thursday that investigators’ threats caused him to confess to the crime on tape and that police trickery led him to give different versions about what happened.

Curtis Vance, 28, of Marianna, is accused in the beating death last October of KATV personality Anne Pressly. He also is charged with rape, residential burglary and theft and is set for a trial Nov. 2 after pleading not guilty.

Taking the stand as defense lawyers try to suppress statements he gave to officers, Vance said he feared for his life after police made him feel like “Public Enemy No. 1″ the night of his arrest. He said he believed that offering a confession would protect him.

“Maybe I’d be a little safe,” Vance said. “They (police) were saying there was a mob of people outside the jailhouse, waiting to explode.”

At various times during the investigation, officers handcuffed him, slapped him or threatened him with a handgun, he told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza, who will decide whether jurors hear Vance’s taped interviews with police.

In questioning by deputy prosecutor John Johnson, Vance acknowledged signing papers giving up some of his legal rights and said he understood how the legal system works.

At one point, Vance said he agreed to talk to police just to get out of a 23-hour lockdown at the Pulaski County jail or to obtain cigarettes.

“You confessed to capital murder to get off of lockdown?” Johnson asked.

Vance said that was correct.

“You’re just trying to help yourself … telling all these lies today,” Johnson later countered.

“That’s you, Mr. Prosecutor,” Vance replied.

Vance could face the death penalty if convicted in the Oct. 20, 2008, attack. Pressly died five days later without regaining consciousness.

Detectives’ testimony and taped statements offered a variety of confessions by Vance. One included Vance not inside the home and two other men committing the beating, another had him beating Pressly with a wood-handled garden tool. At one point during an interview played Wednesday, Vance called Pressly “a nice lady” who let him inside her home during the early morning hours of Oct. 20 for a glass of water after he said his car overheated.

The hearing on whether Piazza will let jurors hear Vance’s confessions or review DNA evidence entered its third day Thursday. Piazza could rule later in the day.

Defense lawyers say police locked them out of interviews despite their request to be included, but in a Dec. 10 interview, played in court Wednesday, Vance said he didn’t mind talking to officers despite his attorneys’ recommendation that he not.

“They told me not to, but I felt like I had to,” Vance said. “I feel like it’s my right to talk.”

Police linked Vance to Pressly after hearing about an unsolved rape in Marianna, Vance’s hometown. DNA evidence linked the cases, and Vance was viewed as a suspect in the eastern Arkansas case because had been seen loitering in a neighborhood where a series of burglaries had occurred.