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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 11, 1995                   TAG: 9505110092
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

2 RETURN TO FACE MURDER CHARGES

Two drifters suspected in a violent crime spree that spanned three states are being returned to Roanoke this week to face trial on charges of killing an Old Southwest woman and dumping her body in a car trunk.

David Thomas McKeone, 27, was flown from a Florida prison to Roanoke on Tuesday and appeared in Roanoke Circuit Court on Wednesday for a brief arraignment.

A co-defendant, Paul David Thompson, is expected to be brought to Roanoke from Florida later this week, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Phillips said.

Both men are accused of beating Virgie Green to death last year after she took them into her home on Woods Avenue. Thompson, 25, faces the death penalty on charges of capital murder, robbery, grand larceny and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.

McKeone is charged with first-degree murder - which carries a maximum punishment of life in prison - robbery, grand larceny and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.

At a hearing Wednesday, Rocky Mount lawyer Mary Harkins told Judge Clifford Weckstein that she has been hired to represent McKeone. Weckstein set a June 28 trial date.

Before he was transported to the Roanoke City Jail, McKeone had been serving a 14-year prison term in Florida for trying to kill a 67-year-old Clearwater man several days after Green's body was found in the trunk of a car behind her Roanoke home.

Both McKeone and Thompson were convicted this year of attempted murder in the man's beating. His car was stolen, and McKeone and Thompson later were arrested in Texas.

The two men, who met while doing time in a West Virginia prison, also are suspects in the beating death of a 63-year-old man in Marion County, W.Va., last August.

Green last was seen by her children Oct. 25, the day before her 44th birthday. One week later, her body was found in the trunk of a blue Buick, wrapped in blankets, with two green trash bags pulled tightly over her head. An autopsy found that she died from a blow to her head with a blunt instrument.

A ring had been taken from her finger, and tools and appliances were missing from her home.

Keywords:
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by CNB