May 3—TAZEWELL, Va. — A jury is scheduled to start deliberating today about whether a man charged with first-degree murder and other offenses is responsible for the 2017 death of a Bluefield, Va., woman whose body was found dumped along an East River Mountain road.

Michael Wayne Pennington Jr., who is being held at an Abingdon, Va., corrections facility, was indicted by the May 2017 Tazewell County Grand Jury on charges including first-degree murder, concealing a dead body, three counts of grand larceny, three counts of grand larceny with intent to sell or distribute; credit card theft; credit card fraud; and receiving goods from credit card fraud.

The charges are connected to the murder of Kaitlyn "Katiee" Ann Toler of Bluefield, Va. Toler's body was found on April 6, 2017 along Mountain Lane in Bluefield, Va. Toler had lived with her mother, Mary Toler, and Pennington. When Pennington was arrested, he was already in jail on unrelated charges including burglary and larceny.

A trial was started for Pennington last March, but it ended in a mistrial.

The Commonwealth rested its case, Commonwealth's Attorney J. Chris Plaster said Tuesday to Circuit Court Judge Richard Patterson. Plaster has represented the prosecution along with Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Brandon Goins and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Melanie Menefee.

After conferring during a brief recess, Attorney David Kelley, who is representing Pennington along with attorney Andrew Scruggs, informed Judge Patterson that their client had waived his right to testify. The judge said the jury would be told they could not consider that choice during their deliberations.

Judge Patterson reminded Pennington that the choice about whether to testify was his and not his attorneys'.

Pennington replied that he understood.

The jurors were dismissed for the day so work could begin on drafting the jury's instructions. The trial will resume this morning when the jurors are read their instructions. Once this task is completed, they will begin their deliberations.

Two prosecution witnesses testified Tuesday before the Commowealth and the defense rested their cases.

Alpha Bailey, a site manager for T-Mobile who is responsible for 911 call traces, testified about how tests showed that he was "98 percent" certain that Kaitlyn Toler's cellphone never left the area around her home in Bluefield, Va. Only one cellphone tower was within range so the phone's exact location could not be determined, but it was not taken from the area.

In his opening statement to the jury, Plaster said that Pennington had told Toler's mother that Kaitlyn had traveled to Charleston.

Another witness, Special Agent Clay Davis with the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation, testified about how he scanned Toler's cellphone and found a series of calls and messages that were not answered after she disappeared. The last call, which lasted about a minute, was made on March 30, 2017.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com