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Defendant explains blood in vehicle

William Deparvine tells jurors he was cut trying to restart the truck.

By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published August 2, 2005

TAMPA - Last week, things did not look so good for William Deparvine. Five days into his murder trial, a parade of prosecution witnesses appeared to leave him little in the way of a dramatic defense.

On Monday, Deparvine's defense attorneys flipped the script, calling on their client to testify about his version of the events leading to Richard and Karla Van Dusen's deaths.

Deparvine, 53, told jurors he last saw the couple alive Nov. 25, 2003, when they drove to his St. Petersburg apartment to deliver a red 1971 Chevrolet Cheyenne truck he'd bought from them. He said there was a logical explanation for his blood being in the murdered couple's vehicle three days later.

Deparvine met Richard Van Dusen, 58, when he drove to the couple's home in Tierra Verde on a Sunday morning to test drive the truck and put a $1,500 cash deposit down on the vehicle, he said.

Two days later when they dropped off the truck, Deparvine said, he noticed the couple were being followed by a man driving another vintage red truck. The next thing Deparvine knew, he said, detectives were at his doorstep telling him the couple had been murdered.

"I was shocked when I heard that," Deparvine testified Monday.

Deparvine, a felon, said he was even more surprised when police arrested him in the double homicide nearly two months later.

Prosecutors have accused Deparvine of shooting the Van Dusens and dumping their bodies in a dirt driveway near Old Memorial Highway in northwest Hillsborough County. The couple's blood-spattered Jeep Cherokee was found in a lot about a mile from where the bodies were found Nov. 26. Last week, several forensic experts testified that DNA found in blood left on the Jeep's steering wheel matched Deparvine's.

But Deparvine said Monday that the reason was simple. The Chevrolet ran out of gas while he and Richard Van Dusen were test driving it Nov. 23. Deparvine said he cut his hand while priming the carburetor to restart the truck and probably was still bleeding when Van Dusen asked him to drive the Jeep Cherokee back to the couple's home that day.

Investigators didn't believe that version of events, Deparvine said. He said detectives misled him about the facts in the case and tried to bully him into confessing.

"From the point I told them I drove the Cherokee, it all went down the toilet from there," Deparvine said.

After nearly two hours on the witness stand Monday, assistant public defender John Skye prodded Deparvine to proffer another theory about the murder. Defense attorneys have repeatedly tried to implicate Deparvine's neighbor Henry Sullivan in the crime, saying an identification card found near the Jeep linked Sullivan to the Van Dusens' deaths.

A career criminal, Sullivan told police he didn't know how the card wound up near the Jeep. He said he replaced the ID a couple of months after losing the one that was found. A search of his home turned up two 9mm guns, but Sullivan was not charged.

On Monday, Deparvine denied killing the couple and pointed the finger at his neighbor. Asked if he knew what led to the Van Dusens' deaths, Deparvine replied:

"I don't know whether Henry Sullivan did it with his gun or not."

His testimony was expected to continue today.

--Candace Rondeaux can be reached at 813 226-3337 or rondeaux@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 2, 2005, 02:45:17]