Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 3

Ex-refusenik criticizes Soviets on emigration. Page 4A. Judge dismisses copyright suit against Shirley MacLaine. Page 6A. Page 3A Tuesday, Aug.

23, 1988 Lottery extra: Monday's number, 428, has been drawn eight times before. 3petott 4ftee 9 tess 1 7, 6 Man convicted in murder of oil firm courier I If I -A il BY JIM FINKELSTEIN Free Ff ess Staff Writer A Waterford Township mechanic was convicted Monday of first-degree felony murder, armed robbery and kidnapping in the May 1987 slaying of an oil company courier. Jerry Strickland, 27, who was arrested in Washington state after NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" broadcast a February segment on the slaying of Elmer DeBoer, faces a mandatory life prison term when he is sentenced Sept. 9 by Oakland County Circuit Judge James Thorburn. After a half-day of deliberation both Friday and Monday, the 12-member jury found Strickland guilty of all five charges, including two counts of using a gun in the kidnapping.

In closing arguments, Assistant Prosecutor Charles Spiekerman pointed to Strickland and said, "Now you know what a cold-blooded murderer looks like." Defense attorney Elbert Hatchett said that Strickland's girlfriend, Melissa Munday, lied when she told the jury that Strickland confessed to the murder. Munday, 1 8, who was arrested with Strickland in Moses Lake, worked at a Union 76 station where Leemon Oil Co. courier DeBoer, 38, File photo Jerry Strickland was arrested after an "Unsolved Mysteries" television broadcast. regularly picked up cash receipts. She and Strickland disappeared soon after DeBoer was found dead of gunshot wounds in a marshy field in Rose Township.

She testified in exchange for having murder and kidnap charges dropped, but will return from her Maryland home next month to face armed robbery charges in juvenile court. Munday was 17 at the time of the robbery. Pete Leisure of Mason works on a ride at the Fairgrounds Monday. Workers hustled under sunny skies to ready rides, paint murals and even do the dishes for hundreds of animals the fair will host. The fair opens Friday at Eight Mile and Woodward, and runs through Sept.

5. Snu. A Fair amount of work TO BE DONE Photos by Alan R. Kamuda Montreux fireworks lose to all that commerce jazz xe, A shipping channel well after the end of the show. Delays cost large shipping vessels as much as $1,500 an hour, said Hall.

Hall said the organization accedes to the annual Freedom Festival fireworks display, but further river closings could hurt shipping. "If you crack the door for one, you're pretty obligated to crack the door for the second, the third. Where do you draw the line?" Hall said. Clavton Evans, executive officer of if BY ROGER CHESLEY Free Press Staff Writer Fireworks won't brighten the night sky during the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival next week because of differences over water namely, the Detroit River. Detroit Renaissance officials announced Monday that they have canceled the Sept.

2 Wisk detergent "Bright Nights" display because the U.S. Coast Guard turned down a permit to close the river from the Ambassador Bridge to east of the Renaissance Center. A crowd of 50,000 watched the pyrotechnics last year. Though the river might have been closed for as little as 45 minutes, shipping interests believed it "would dramatically impact on the shipping industry," said Anne Gilgallon, media relations co-ordinator for Detroit Renaissance, which helps produce the festival. Gordon Hall, vice-president of the Lake Carriers Association, based in Cleveland, said in a telephone interview that pleasure boats viewing the fireworks might have clogged the From left, Laura Schippa of Milford, Kathy Carpenter of Romulus and Norma Smith of Pontiac wash and sterilize animal feed cups.

I V. y- Byron Nolen, 19, of Inkster, and Belinda Crasser, 19, of Oscoda, paint a farm scene on the coliseum Monday. 20 Possible toxic waste halts prison construction lake Tl 1 Superior Sautf MILES SteMaioQ, 0NTARI0 State analyzes soil at former air base Kincheloe A A (75p Lake -i Michigan Possible toxic contamination in soil delays construction of Chippewa Regional Prison the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in Detroit, said the request was denied because the Coast Guard could not resolve the competing interests. Lever which makes Wisk detergent, sponsors the fireworks display, scheduled for 23 cities this year. The fireworks were to have been launched by Fireworks by Grucci, which did the fireworks for the Statue of Liberty centennial.

"It's kind of a way to end the summer with a bang," said Gilgallon. "It's disappointing, because it's such a good show." Lure maker suit hooks competition BY BOB CAMPBELL Free Press Staff Writer Something was fishy Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit. A lawsuit was filed asking a judge to decide if a Kwikfish is really a Flatfish. Bloomfield Hills-based Helin Tackle Management which manufactures the Flatfish lure, says its competitor Kwikfish, headquartered in Windsor, has damaged Helin's business and infringed on its trademark rights.

Helin wants Kwikfish to stop using the Kwikfish name, which it says violates its Flatfish trademark, because it, too, precedes fish with another four-letter word. Helin wants Kwikfish to stop making lures with the same sizes and colors that Helin sells. The suit also seeks damages of more than $10,000. The suit claims that Kwikfish lures were first manufactured in 1975 by Val Breitenstein, who worked on and off for Helin from 1947 to 1976, when he was terminated. The suit alleges that Breitenstein used Flatfish molds to make Kwikfish and developed nearly identical packaging and numbering.

Charles Helin invented the Flatfish in 1933 and opened a factory on Gratiot in Detroit in 1937 where he manufactured the lures in 40 colors and 20 sizes for worldwide distribution. Today, the Flatfish and other Helin lures are manufactured at a Troy plant. to the state, but thought most of the suspected problem areas had been determined safe. Curran said there was no indication the suspected contamination would affect the more than 2,000 inmates housed within a half-mile of the new site. The state obtained the Air Force base after it was closed in 1978.

The medium-security Kinross Correctional Facility opened there in the early 1980s. A temporary minimum-security facility on the site opened last year, and construction is also under way on another temporary said workers noticed a bad smell during excavation. A preliminary test indicated possible toxins in the soil and work was suspended on the housing unit in late July, Bauer said. Although Curran said he was uncertain how much money had been budgeted to build Chippewa, it is similar in size and design to several other close-and medium-security prisons with more than 600 beds that the department constructed in recent years for about $42 million each. Curran said state officials were aware that there was some potential contamination on the old Air Force base before the property was returned James Curran.

The department last week hired a consultant to test the soil, Curran said. "We don't feel it is defined enough yet to know if it is going to be a problem or not," Curran said. "If it is, we're going to have to talk to the Air Force" about how the toxins got there and why the state wasn't told about them when the property, which had been on long-term lease to the military, was returned to the state, he said. George Bauer, project manager at Chippewa for Turner Construction, By Dawson Bell Free Press Lansing Staff LANSING Construction on one of, the main housing units at Chippewa Regional Prison, on the site of the former Kincheloe Air Force Base, has been suspended while state officials attempt to determine if soils at the site are contaminated with toxins. Construction workers, while digging foundations last month, discovered the potential contamination, which could delay completion of the prison and add to its cost, said Department of Corrections Deputy Director Lake Huron Detroit Free Press facility, which, in addition to the regional prison, is targeted for completion in 1989.

Basketball star testifies of friend's death after quick confrontation BY JOE SWICKARD Free Press Staff Writer Syracuse University basketball star Derrick Coleman told a Detroit court Monday how his 17-year-old friend Clarence (Tony) Scott traded stares with another youth before Scott was fatally shot on June 3, 1987. Pressley, standing on the porch, stretched his arm and put the gun to Scott's head, Rankin said. "He tried to push it aside and Ray just shot him," Rankin said. "The gun went down and shot him." Outside court, Coleman softly declined to speak of his slain friend, a young man he often called because of a resemblance to the late singer Otis Redding. But in an interview during the basketball season, Coleman, with his black-banded jersey, said he was playing for Scott.

"I'm having fun," he said. "I'm having fun for me and 0." Other witnesses said Raymond Pressley, on trial for murder in Scott's death, pulled a gun from a black snake-skin briefcase after the two had exchanged stares and brief words. Coleman attracted national attention by wearing a black mourning band on his basketball uniform and dedicating his game to Scott ever since his friend's death. Scott was following in Coleman's footsteps as a star forward on the Detroit Northern High School basketball team when he was killed. Pressley faces a first-degree murder charge before Recorder's Court Judge David Kerwin, who is hearing the case without a jury.

Witnesses said that Pressley, holding the black snakeskin briefcase, was with a group of teenagers on the porch of Scott's grandmother's house on the 1900 block of Clairmont. The incident began when words were exchanged as Scott and Coleman walked from the backyard toward the front sidewalk. "Tony asked the guy why he was staring at us," testified Coleman, who at 6-foot-10 towered a head taller than the lanky Pressley when defense lawyer Charlie Campbell stood them side-by-side before Kerwin. Campbell said Pressley was terrified of the 6-foot-5 Scott and the even taller Coleman. Coleman said Scott turned and began walking toward the porch.

James Rankin, a companion of Pressley, testified that Pressley, putting his hand in the briefcase, told Scott: "Don't walk up on me." Rankin said he believed Pressley reached into the briefcase to scare Scott. But answering, "I don't give a f--about a briefcase," Scott took another step and Pressley pulled out a pistol, Rankin testified. Scott saw the gun, but "he kept coming like he didn't care," Rankin said. Hugh I A-fell on vacation.