A decision in the Max Duane Rolfe murder trial is expected today following the presentation of evidence yesterday in the December 23 shotgun slaying of 30-year old Joseph McCullock. Closing arguments will be heard this morning and jurors will be given instructions by Judge William Wellons.
Rolfe, 54, of Hog Wallow Road in Halifax County, near Brookneal, is being tried with the murder and use of a firearm while committing a felony (murder).
McCullock died from a shotgun blast to his head at Duke University Medical Hospital on Christmas Day.
Rolfe was arrested and charged with the crime the following day.
Defense attorney Curtis L. Thornhill argued throughout the trial that Rolfe acted in self-defense and meant to fire a warning shot over McCullock's head, after the victim supposedly reached for a weapon.
But Commonwealth's Attorney John Greenbacker argued that there was no evidence Rolfe was ever threatened. "What this boils down to is the credibility of the witnesses," the prosecutor told the court.
Rolfe's daughter and wife of the victim, Jennifer McCullock, testified that on the morning of December 23, Rolfe told her that her husband was dealing drugs and possibly seeing another woman.
When Jennifer McCullock confronted her husband with what she had heard, he then confronted Rolfe.
Eyewitness Shirley Shotwell, sister of the victim, testified McCullock approached Rolfe at McCullock's carport in a non-threatening manner. She said that Rolfe pulled a sawed-off single barrel shotgun from his car and fired at McCullock, striking him in the head.
Twice during the trial, Rolfe's attorney moved to strike the murder charge against his client, citing lack of malice and lack of premeditation.
"Everything was done in the heat of passion. This is nothing more than manslaughter at best," Thornhill said.
Rolfe himself took the stand to testify that he felt frightened of McCullock's temper and his expertise with knives in particular.
According to his testimony, the McCullocks had argued several times in weeks prior to the December 23 incident, and had been arguing intensely that morning.
He had brought the shotgun up from his cabin to put under his bed in the bedroom where he had stayed in the McCullock's trailer.
Rolfe testified that he did not want to leave the loaded weapon in the trailer where at least two other loaded weapons were located at the time. He said that he feared leaving another gun would make things worse in light of that morning's domestic dispute.
Rolfe then returned the shotgun to the seat of his car.
Rolfe said that he warned McCullock to stay away from him, and not to come any closer.
Commonwealth's Attorney John E. Greenbacker, in arguing against the motion to strike the murder charge, recalled further testimony from Jennifer McCullock, that the rumors about her husband were generated by Rolfe.
"Rolfe planted the seeds of the original discord in the presence of the deceased and his wife during the day with the shotgun in his possession, Greenbacker said."

The conversion of a vacant urologic clinic to a regional library will be the issue during a South Boston/Halifax County Library Consolidation Study Committee next month.
But the issue was not mentioned during a joint town/county meeting Monday night.
Council and supervisors did set a July 11 library committee meeting date to discuss the library consolidation issue.
South Boston Town Council announced Saturday that it had entered into a contract to purchase the approximately 11,000 square-foot building on Hamilton Boulevard.
Council also indicated it hoped to buy the building and then rent it to the county at a minimal annual rent.
Under the sales contract, the town has 90 days to finalize plans.
The town will be able to purchase the property at a discounted cash price of $338,000 since the owner, Danville Urologic Clinic, has agreed to make a noncash charitable contribution of the residual value of the property.
Yesterday, library officials said that a building consultant for the Library of Virginia is scheduled to visit the proposed regional site next week.
"Libraries have very stringent requirements concerning the ability of the floors to bear heavy loads," explained Paul Johnson, assistant director of the Halifax County-South Boston Regional Library. "Those are the kinds of things he would be investigating."
Parking and handicap access issues are among items the Library Board is anxious to investigate. Ross Garrett, chairman of the local Library Board, estimated 35 parking spaces currently in front of the building and space for perhaps nine or 10 in the rear of the Hamilton Boulevard building site.
"If the building proves to be suitable, in my opinion, it would be an excellent location. It is centrally located and easily accessible," Garrett said.
In other business, supervisors set consolidation study committee meetings with South Boston for E-911 Dispatch Center for July 10; Water and Sewer - solid waste - for June 28 and Industrial Development - services - for June 28.
Supervisors also set a joint study meeting with the Town of Halifax to discuss courthouse perimeter parking when courthouse renovations are complete. That meeting was set for June 27.
Supervisors voted to join the HUD Good Neighbor Program "on a case-by-case basis" with the administrator to have authorization as long as supervisors approve the selections.
The county will purchase the property for $1 through the HUD Good Neighbor Program. The county is the agency that can purchase the property which will then be conveyed to Halifax County Community Action.
"It will pay for itself if you don't get too involved with legal costs," said Supervisor R.E. "Dickie" Abbott.
RECYCLING
Jennifer Hochstein, Halifax County Litter Control Recycling director, suggested that supervisors delay purchasing a baler for recyclables since Waste Industries Inc. has approached the county with a waste program.
Waste Management Inc. purchased Quick Way of South Boston this year.
Hochstein said that although the baler would bring in more on products, the initial cost would be high.
The county seeks to recycle cardboard, plastics and aluminum.
Supervisors approved Hochstein's recommendation to delay purchasing a baler and to enter into a trial program with Waste Management Inc. for six months. At the close of that period, the program will be evaluated. There will be reports to the board during the six-month period.
The board did not act on a request to support a resolution by the Southside Planning District Commission concerning a high-speed rail system.
The S-line of the Southeast High Speed Rail would travel through the Southside Planning District counties of Brunswick and Mecklenburg, explained assistant County Administrator Jerry Lovelace.
However, South Boston Mayor Glen Abernathy and Supervisor Abbott urged that the locality investigate a route to serve the county.
A rail spur from here to connect at Burkeville was one suggestion.
"If we don't get in on an east/west (line) from the beginning, we will never get in," Abernathy said.
Halifax Town Councilman Jack Dunavant moved that the localities make a joint effort to let officials know that Halifax County was interested in having a line run through this area.
HOLIDAY
Supervisors approved a July 3 holiday for county employees, reflecting a Gov. Gilmore policy. South Boston had already approved the holiday for its employees, allowing a July 3-4 holiday.

The South Boston Flue-Cured Tobacco Market will open ten days later this year, with opening day set for Monday, August 14.
With an 18.5 percent quota cut for this season and a 44 percent cut since 1997, the entire 2000 marketing season will be cut short, said Supervisor of Sales Teresa Pool.
The local market has 6.5 million pounds designated, she said.
Opening dates for the entire flue-cured marketing region was set this week by the Flue-Cured Tobacco Marketing committee.
The committee is made up of farmers, warehouse operators, tobacco companies and farm groups.
The Georgia-Florida Belt will be opening on August 1, followed by the South Carolina-North Carolina Border Belt on August 8.
The Eastern North Carolina markets will open the following day, August 9.
The Old Belt, of which the local market is a part of, will open on August 14.

By PHILIP BRASHER
AP Farm Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton released a flood of money to farmers Tuesday, signing a $15 billion package of cash payments and insurance subsidies that represents the third big bailout of the agricultural economy in as many years.
The legislation ignored his administration's proposals to  overhaul the market-oriented farm program enacted by the Republican-controlled Congress in 1996.
The bill includes $8.2 billion to expand and cut the cost of federal crop insurance over the next five years and $5.5 billion for payments to grain and cotton growers this fall. An additional $1.6 billion is earmarked for other farmers and lawmakers' special projects.
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the bailout ''was a clear admission'' that the 1996 farm law ''fails to provide an  effective safety net for American farmers.''
The money is supposed to compensate growers for depressed  commodity prices as well as to encourage farmers to protect themselves in future years by buying higher levels of crop insurance.
The federal subsidy for the most popular level of insurance will rise from 42 percent to 59 percent and coverage will be expanded to crops for which it isn't currently available. The expansion of the insurance system should lessen the need for Congress to pass emergency assistance in coming years, USDA officials said. The changes will take effect for crops planted this fall.
''Farmers will have more security to plant. And taxpayers will have more confidence that their dollars are being well spent,'' said Ken Ackerman, administrator of USDA's Risk Management Agency.
The $5.5 billion in direct payments that farmers will get in September will mean an additional $16,000 this year for a 500-acre corn farm or $12,000 for a farmers who grows 300 acres of cotton.
Glickman directed his criticism at the way the direct payments are being made. Because they go to participants in the1996 farm program, some of the money will go to growers who didn't plant a crop this year, Glickman said.
Glickman had wanted Congress to set up a new subsidy program that would have targeted assistance to small to medium-scale farms, but his idea found little support among producer organizations.
The legislation also included $500 million for payments to farmers who grow soybeans and other oilseeds: $340 million in payments to tobacco farmers, to compensate them for falling cigarette sales; and $200 million for the government to buy surplus fruit and vegetables.
Lawmakers also tucked in money for projects that would benefit their districts, including a plant genetics research facility in Santa Fe, N.M., and $14 million to complete construction of an ethanol research pilot plant at Southern Illinois University.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Federal research funding is flowing to scientists trying to use genetically altered tobacco as a tool to fight cervical cancer.
Researchers at North Carolina State and Georgetown universities  think they've found a way to use tobacco to cultivate proteins needed for a cancer-fighting vaccine that has been difficult to produce in a traditional laboratory.
At the request of U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, a Republican from Concord who serves on the House Agriculture Committee, $3 million for the research was inserted into a farm aid bill passed by Congress last week. The bill is awaiting President Clinton's signature.
A vaccine probably would not be commercially available for years, but researchers should know within six months whether their efforts are likely to pan out.
Cervical cancer is among the most deadly form of the disease for women worldwide, causing about 5,000 deaths each year in the United States alone, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The alternative use for a crop long associated with lung cancer also would be welcomed by tobacco farmers desperately hanging on as the demand for cigarettes wanes in the United States.
''This could be very important both as a health issue and as a help for farm families in North Carolina,'' Hayes said. ''I don't want to be involved in creating false hope for people, but from what the scientists tell me, this is very promising.''
Georgetown and NCSU have teamed up because Georgetown knows viruses, and NCSU knows tobacco. The universities will split the $3 million, which will pay for their research for at least a year.
About 20 companies worldwide are working on producing pharmaceuticals in genetically altered plants or have expressed interest in doing so, according to the Bowditch Group, a Boston consulting firm.
A few such drugs are already being tested in human clinical trials, including an antibody to prevent tooth decay, said David Wheat, the group's president.
Several crops, including corn and soybeans, may also prove effective vessels for cultivating drugs, Wheat said.
But using tobacco plants specifically to fight cervical cancer ''is a novel approach,'' said Kenneth Dretchen, dean of research at Georgetown University.
The most common treatment options for women affected by the disease include surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy, all of which are designed to remove or kill the abnormal cells in or near the cervix.
Tobacco plants would be used to produce a therapeutic vaccine that would fight infection by human papillomavirus or HPV, one of the most common causes of cancer of the cervix.
Dretchen said the vaccine could be used both to treat women already diagnosed with cancer and to prevent the disease from showing up in healthy women.
Previous efforts to develop such a vaccine have fallen short. The vaccine requires large quantities of an HPV protein fragment that's ''very, very difficult to grow in a laboratory setting,'' Dretchen said.
The researchers believe, however, that the tobacco plant can be biologically engineered to produce large amounts of the needed protein. The process involves injecting protein fragments into a tobacco plant's seed and then extracting the protein once the plant matures.
Even with high demand for the cervical cancer vaccine, ''a relatively small number'' of tobacco growers probably would be able to devote their crops to cultivating the drug, said NCSU crop science professor Arthur Weissinger.
But those who did probably would find it lucrative, and ''really, this is just the tip of the iceberg,'' he said. If the cervical cancer vaccine succeeds, many other products could be cultivated with the help of tobacco plants, he said.

Radford police are investigating the Thursday night death of 23-year-old Halifax County native Lori Michelle Pleasants of Radford as a murder.
"We're working it as a homicide investigation," Detective Sgt. Kenny Ford of the Radford Police Department said yesterday.
A press release issued Monday by the Radford Police Department stated that the area medical examiner has ruled Pleasants' death as a murder.
"The medical examiner has ruled that death was by asphyxiation which is synonymous with strangulation," Ford stated.
Ford gave no details of where Radford police investigators are in the investigation except to say that officers are continuing to conduct interviews with an unspecified number of individuals.
No arrests have been made.
Police have released few details involving the death of Pleasants who was a student at Radford University.
The press release issued by the Radford Police Department stated that Radford Police responded to an apartment in the 500 block of Clement Street at 11:41 p.m. Thursday on a call regarding an unresponsive female.
Ford said officers found Pleasants dead inside her home.
The detective declined to reveal information concerning whether or not any weapons were found at the scene by police.
According to the press release, the incident at Pleasants' apartment was reported to police by friends.

Two South Boston men were arrested Monday afternoon in connection with an armed robbery that took place at the Elmo Store in the Elmo community.
Lawrence "Dinky" Harvey Everett, 19, of Springdale Drive, and Derek Lamar Beard, 19, of Riverdale Drive, were charged after they were apprehended by the police shortly after the 3:45 p.m. robbery.
Both men allegedly entered the Elmo Store armed and wearing masks and took an undisclosed amount of cash, according to Captain Fears of the Sheriff's Department.
Everett and Beard each face felony charges of robbery, the use of a firearm in a threatening manner and wearing a mask while appearing on property without the consent of the owner.
Everett was charged also with the possession of a firearm after having been convicted of a felony.
A description of a vehicle and its occupants was given to police, which matched the description from an earlier incident in Danville, in which the occupants had filled up the vehicle with gas and left without paying the station attendant, according to Lt. Rice of the South Boston police.
The vehicle was spotted around 4:10 p.m., at Franklin's Garage in Riverdale, where one suspect was arrested and the other fled through the low grounds toward the Dan River, but was later captured, Fears said.
An employee at Franklin's Garage, with a kinship to one of the suspects, had rented the vehicle from Elliott's Auto Service, Fears said.
The suspects were arrested without incident by sheriff's deputies, who were assisted by the South Boston police and the Virginia State Police, as well as a canine unit from Camp 23, Fears said.
A search for weapons by the Virginia State Police and sheriff's deputies is on going in the vicinity of the low grounds where one suspect had fled, according to Fears.
Both suspects are being held at the Blue Ridge Regional Jail without bond and are scheduled to appear in Halifax County General District Court on June 26.
· Anthony Fred Brown, 36, of Sinai Road in South Boston, was arrested Monday by sheriff's deputies on charges of robbery.
Brown was charged for the alleged robbery of Guy A. Debord of an undisclosed amount of U.S. currency on January 15, and the use of a firearm while commiting the robbery.
A hearing for Brown was not available at press time.
· A Nathalie man was arrested Sunday by sheriff's deputies on an assault-and-battery charge.
James Arthur Stevens, 44, of Acorn Road, was charged with the alleged assault and battery of Teresa Stevens.
Stevens is scheduled to appear in Halifax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on June 20.

In other police reports:

A 24-year-old Halifax woman was injured as a result of a two-car crash Friday morning at the intersection of Jones Ferry Road (Route 671) and Union Grove Road (Route 679).
Trooper R.T. Ridgeway said Rebecca Long Layton was injured after the 1986 Oldsmobile she was driving was struck on the right side by a 1984 Chevrolet pickup, driven by Arthur Lee Fallen, 49, of Halifax.
The trooper said Fallen's vehicle came into the intersection and struck the Layton vehicle.
Layton's vehicle then ran off of the right side of the road and struck a highway sign and a guy wire to a utility pole before going through a lawn on private property, said Ridgeway.
The 9:30 a.m. crash caused an estimated $2,500 in damages to the Layton vehicle, $250 to the Fallen vehicle, $200 to the guy wire belonging to Virginia Power, $50 to a highway sign belonging to VDOT and $10 to the lawn belonging to Ernest Womack of South Boston.
Layton was treated and released at Halifax Regional Hospital, according to a hospital spokesperson.
Fallen was charged with failing to yield the right of way.
· A two-vehicle accident occurred Tuesday morning on Route 58, eight-tenths of a mile west of Maplewood Drive (Route 857).
Trooper S.M. Krantz said the 6:35 a.m. accident occurred when a 1997 Freightliner tractor, driven by Ralph L. Elmore Jr., 51, of Anthony, Florida, pulled across the median and into the path of a 1994 Buick, driven by Henry J. Crawley, 75, of South Boston.
Krantz said the Crawley vehicle then struck the rear tire of the tractor causing an estimated $1,500 in damages to Crawley's vehicle.
Elmore was charged with failing to yield the right of way.

In many ways a debate as old as Plato and Aristotle played out at the Southern Baptist Convention last week.
And like the ancient philosophers' differing views, the decision on a woman's place appears split.
Although the SBC's decision declaring women should no longer serve as pastors provoked words like "tragedy," three local female clergywomen serving Baptist churches do not think it will affect their churches.
Prayer was the Rev. Katrina Brooks' immediate response as SBC began its deliberations last week.
When the SBC decision was made, the associate pastor at Bethel Baptist felt grief.
"It is another human attempt to limit God and to define what God is doing.
"I am called to pastor," she added, now as a "team player" but she is unsure what the future might bring. "I am kind of leaving that up to God," said Brooks.
But like her husband, the Rev. Tony Brooks, who is pastor at Bethel Baptist, the Rev. Katrina Brooks is upset about other SBC changes.
"The entire (SBC) document is just ripping the basic Baptist distinctive, the things that made us Baptist," she said.
The Rev. Bob Fox, First Baptist Church of South Boston, agrees, citing attempts to emphasize the idea of pastoral authority over the priesthood of the believers - the right of each believer to approach God and come to his/her own understanding of God's direction - and having a rigid interpretation of scriptures that does not allow for differences of interpretation as SBC issues.
"We believe that everybody has the potential to be used by God in special ways," Fox said. "Reading scriptures could lead to different interpretations of roles."
"I believe God can still work in all of this," said the Rev. Katrina Brooks. "I am not disillusioned."
The Rev. Amy Carter Stewart is just beginning her job as youth and children's minister at Beth Car Baptist.
Her husband, the Rev. Charles Stewart, is the pastor at Beth Car.
How does she feel about the SBC's decision not to allow a woman to hold the office of pastor.
"I think it is a great tragedy if women are called to be a pastor and they (SBC) have made this resolution, then they are an impediment to God's will."
Still, Carter, as did Katrina Brooks, does not think the SBC's decision will have any impact at the women's current churches.
"I just wish Southern Baptist would look to the life of Jesus and how he treated women before they make any decision on how women should serve in the Kingdom of God," she added.
Stewart, who studied at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville and the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, has served as a minister to youth in other churches, as a supply pastor for several summers in Halifax and Charlotte counties, and as a hospital chaplain at the University of Virginia and at a hospital in Louisville, Ky.
The Rev. Stewart was ordained in 1993.
The Rev. Jeanell Cox began her duties at First Baptist Church in South Boston several weeks ago.
"I think that the decision by the Southern Baptist Convention is demonstrative of the many differing views Baptists have on women's roles in the church, in families ...," began the minister to Youth and Families.
"As far as the effect on me personally, really not a whole lot," she added. "That is due in part to the fact that what the SBC and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship do is not binding on the local churches.
"They (local churches) have the autonomy to have the final say whether or not what the convention says is implemented in the local church," Cox said.
Personally, she said that she finds it difficult to be an ordained Baptist minister "only in the sense that this is a fairly new event in Baptist churches in general. It takes some getting used to," she added.
Ordained in December 1999, the Duke Divinity student "experienced the sense of call," which led her to the ministry, in her first year in college.
Reared in churches where women could not pastor, she describes hers as a long journey to get to ... "God is calling me and I am sure of that," and then to find a setting to live out the call to ministry and service.
At Duke, she said, she found a "built-in community of women" in divinity school. "I also found an openness at Duke by all of the male students," she added.
How does she feel about SBC's action.
"The Southern Baptist Convention is interpreting scriptures in a different way than I do. They are doing their best to read and interpret God's word, but I say that I am doing the same.
"Ultimately, Christianity is a religion that has various manifestations. I appreciate the openness and conversation between groups that makes it a living and very vibrant religion.
"What is important for all of us to remember is that God created each one of us with a vast array of gifts, abilities and talents, not just women, women and men, and there is no greater blessing or gift that we can receive from other people than the freedom to use those gifts. The churches and communities where I have worked have given me the opportunity to do this."

The announcement of Halifax County High School's new principal and a new principal at Clays Mill Elementary School could come Monday night.
Personnel matters and year-end financial matters are the two items on the agenda for Monday night's meeting of the Halifax County School Board.
Monday night's year-end School Board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the conference room of the Halifax County Public Schools Administrative Office on the first floor of the Mary M. Bethune Complex.
The meeting is open to the general public.
Halifax County School Superintendent Dennis Witt hinted after the June 12 School Board meeting that a decision regarding the high school principal's position could be forthcoming at this meeting.
The high school principal's post came open this spring with the appointment of the school's principal, Larry Clark, to the post of assistant superintendent for Human Resources.
A successor to Joe Griles at Clays Mill Elementary School is also expected to be named Monday.
Griles was appointed earlier this spring as the school system's Director of Pupil Personnel to succeed Kenneth Plaster.
It is not known if the vacant assistant principal's position at Halifax County Middle School will be filled Monday.
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Bobby R. Hall said yesterday that today is the deadline for interested individuals to apply for that position.
Hall did not say yesterday how many applicants had filed for the job but did say several individuals have submitted applications.

Grace Eugenia (Britt) Jones of Fla., died June 16, 2000.
Mrs. Jones was born in Winter Haven, Fla. She was a graduate of Florida State University and held a master's degree from Western Kentucky University. She was employed as superintendent for the Palm Beach County school district. Prior to this, she served as principal of East Lake Middle School and Pahokee Middle Senior High School, all in Fla.
Survivors include her husband, L.W. (Butch) Jones; one sister, May Kimbrell and her husband, Sid; and her mother-in-law, Irene Jones.
A memorial service will be held today, June 21 at Pahokee Middle Senior High School. The family will receive friends from 5:00 to 7:00. The memorial service will begin at 7 p.m. Funeral services will be held June 24, at 1 p.m. at Lakeland Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens in Lakeland, Fla.

Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider St. Mary's Catholic Church Youth Group, 1200 E. Main Street, Pahokee, Fla. 33476 or Palm Beach County Youth For Christ, 800 Northpoint Parkway, Suite 202, West Palm Beach, Fla. 33407.

Elizabeth Lewis Parker, (Liba), age 65, of Salem, died June 18, 2000.
Mrs. Parker was formerly of Murfreesboro, N.C. She was married to Dr. Earl H. Parker, former pastor of Beth Car Baptist Church in Halifax.
Survivors include two daughters, Jenny P. Motley and husband, Phil of Roanoke and Mary D. Parker of Alexandria; her grandchildren, Ian C. Motley and Evan L. Motley; an adopted daughter, Brenda Bowman of Salem; two sisters, Myrtle L. Holt of Butner, N.C. and Jean L. Fields of Morehead City, N.C. She was preceded in death by her husband and one sister, Marie L. Gay.
Graveside services for Mrs. Parker will be held at 11 a.m. June 22 in Rocky Mount Memorial Park, Rocky Mount, N.C. The Rev. Leslie Lamb Rhodes will officiate.

Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider the American Brain Tumor Association, 2720 River Road, Des Plaines, Ill. 60018.

Sara Norman Gibson, 81, of Pulaski, died June 19, 2000, in Lewis Gale Hospital in Salem.
Mrs. Gibson was born in Halifax County on August 14, 1918, the daughter of Warner W. Norman and Lena Rye Norman and was married to Ed Gibson. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Pulaski.
A graveside service will be held May 22 at 1 p.m. from the Highland Memory Gardens in Dublin with the Rev. David Coffey officiating. The family will receive friends after the service at the cemetery.
Survivors include her husband of Wheatland Hills Retirement Home in Radford; four sisters, Gladys Cavanaugh, Virginia Patterson and Elizabeth Thaxton, all of South Boston and Nancy Henderson of Halifax; two brothers, Walter Norman of Waverly and Bruce Norman of South Boston.