Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993 TAG: 9302040125
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A PRODUCT OF THE STREETS, TEEN FACES LIFE SENTENCE
Robert Ingram's boyish looks and occasional smile belied the real person in a Roanoke courtroom Wednesday: a convicted drug dealer, rapist and killer.Seven months shy of his 18th birthday, Ingram was convicted of fatally shooting a man for driving away from a streetside drug deal without paying for a rock of crack cocaine.
He pleaded no contest to charges of killing Steven E. Wikle - the latest chapter in a criminal career that began with an assault charge when Ingram was 12.
Defense attorney Onzlee Ware is not sure what went so wrong so early in his client's life. He will try to find out before Ingram in back in court April 20, facing a maximum sentence of life plus two years for first-degree murder and use of a firearm.
Ware will not be surprised if Ingram's story is similar to that of others in Roanoke who are young, poor and black.
"They see the quick fix in life on the street, selling crack," Ware said.
"Bobby's not a dumb kid; he presents himself well. But somewhere in his life he decided that the place to make it was on the street."
Because Wikle was killed in a drug-related transaction, Ingram had faced a charge of capital murder. Under an agreement reached in Roanoke Circuit Court, prosecutors reduced the charge in exchange for his pleas of no contest.
"We felt that a jury would not, in a case that involved a 17-year-old, have given the death penalty," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Alice Ekirch said.
The fact that Wikle died in a drug deal - in effect contributing to the very problem that claims young men like Ingram - was another reason prosecutors did not seek a capital murder conviction.
As part of the agreement, an unrelated charge against Ingram of distributing crack was dropped.
Detective R.W. Thompson of the Roanoke Police Department testified that Wikle, 34, was killed about 6 a.m. Nov. 8 on Melrose Avenue.
Wikle, along with two friends, had driven to the spot in hopes of trading a small amount of marijuana for crack.
Ingram approached Wikle's vehicle - the point at which his story differs with the eyewitness accounts of Wikle's two friends. They told police Ingram shot Wikle point-blank behind the left ear after he tried to call off the deal.
When asked in court if that account was an accurate summary of the evidence against him, Ingram told Judge Clifford Weckstein: "I guess from their point of view, but not mine."
According to Ingram, Wikle asked for taste of the cocaine that was for sale. After licking the rock and smiling, Wikle began to drive off without paying for the merchandise, Ingram told police.
At that point, he said, he grabbed a .38-caliber revolver from under a garbage can lid and fired in the general direction of Wikle.
As he fled, Ingram later told police, he heard Wikle's vehicle crash into a parked car. When police arrived, Wikle was slumped over the steering wheel. He died later at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
In the past two years, Ingram has been arrested four times on cocaine offenses. He confronted the charges with a "tough guy" attitude that has disappeared with the murder charge, Ware said.
"It's finally hit him that it's not going to be Coyner Springs [Juvenile Detention Home]; he's going to the penitentiary," Ware said.
Of his four drug charges, Ingram was convicted twice. The first time he was placed on probation; the second time he spent a short term in a juvenile learning center.
He also was charged with rape in 1990, according to court records. For that offense, he was placed on probation and ordered to attend sexual-offender counseling.
Keywords:
ROMUR