Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990                   TAG: 9006210214
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

JUDGE CERTIFIES THROAT-CUTTING SLAYING CHARGE

Substitute Judge Jonathan Apgar ruled in General District Court that there was probable cause to support a charge that James S. Ware, 24, murdered Ophelia Laverne Wiley, 31, last month.

The case now goes to a grand jury for a possible indictment.

Although no clear motive emerged during the preliminary hearing, Wiley's husband, Walter, testified that his wife did not approve of a social relationship he had with Ware, a relative.

Ware went to Wiley's home the morning of May 17 while her husband was at work and got into an argument with the woman after she asked him to leave, testimony showed.

Detective N.W. Tolrud, who brought Ware back to Roanoke after the suspect fled to Kansas, testified that Ware decided to talk to him during the flight home.

At a security office at the Charlotte, N.C., airport, Ware admitted that he cut Wiley as they struggled for a knife, Tolrud testified.

Ware told police that Wiley approached him with the knife after he had hit her and that he cut her as they both went for the knife that she had dropped on the floor.