Chattanooga - News- Free Press, October, 1981

'FEW DOLLARS' CLAIMED AS MOTIVE IN KILLING OF EUGENE SCHROEDER

by: John Wilson, News-Free Press Staff Writer

Two former Taft Center inmates had a Yellow Cab driver Eugene Schroeder take them to a remote area of Lakesite "for the sole reason of killing him for no other purpose but taking the few dollars he had," prosecutor Bill Cox told a criminal court jury Wednesday afternoon.

The panel of five women and seven men to hear the death-penalty case was selected after a day and a half in Judge Russell Hinson's courtroom at the Justice Building.

The state is asking for the electric chair for Vincent Battice, 20, and Jeffrey wayne Hunnicutt, 19.

The parents of Hunnicutt, who now live in Washington state, and the widow of cab driver Schroeder sat in the courtroom during the jury selection.

Attorney Rodney Strong, representing Hunnicutt, told the jury that "we are not necessarily saying there was no involvement on Jeffrey's part."

"You can be present at the scene of a crime and not be guilty of a criminal offence."

Attorney Arthur Wulforst, speaking for Battice, said the defense disputes the state's assertion that all evidence in the case will point to the guilt of the two defendants.

Assistant District Attorney Cox said that cab driver Schroeder was found by police at Lakesite inside his cab "breathing his last breaths."

He said he died "from four .38-caliber projectiles."

The Prosecutor said that "sometime before 10:30 p.m. he picked up (at the Trailways bus station) the last passengers he would ever carry."

He said "were it not for the alert observations of residents" and quick actions by the sheriff's department "the perpetrators would have escaped."

Prosecutor Cox said that several residents who lived nearby heard gunshots and saw two people - "one was black and one was white." Battice is black and Hunnicutt is white.

Some Lakesite residents identified the two men that night and will positively point to them in court, it was stated.

The two defendants were picked up within a mile and a quarter of the cab a short time after the cab driver was found, the jury was told.

Prosecutor Cox said there would be evidence involving fingerprints and also the wallet, flashlight and weapon of the cab driver Schroeder.

The incident occurred on October 17, 1981.

-end-

---- On Monday, September 14, 1982, a Criminal Court jury rejecting a death sentence and sentenced Vincent Battice, 20, and Jeffrey Wayne Hunnicutt, 19, to life in prison and 40 additional years for the first- degree murder and armed robbery of Yellow Cab driver Eugene Schroeder.