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

DATE: SUNDAY, March 31, 1991                   TAG: 9103310242
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-9   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: AMELIA                                LENGTH: Short

JURY CONVICTS MAN OF MURDER

After three hours of deliberation, a circuit court jury found Pernell Jefferson guilty Saturday of capital murder in the shooting death of his former girlfriend, Regina Butkowski.

The verdict will result in a sentence of life in prison because Thomas Stark III, Amelia County commonwealth's attorney, did not ask for the death penalty.

Stark reminded the jurors of the recording of Jefferson and Butkowski as Jefferson forced her from her home in March of 1989, two months before the murder in what the prosecutor described as an abortive abduction effort. Authorities believe the recording may have been made when the struggle activated a telephone answering machine.

"What are you doing to me? Let go of me," Butkowski screamed repeatedly on the tape.

Steven Benjamin, Jefferson's lawyer, asked the jury not to be overly influenced by the tape.

by CNB