ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607290004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on July 30, 1996.
The murder of Lorna Raines Crockett occurred in 1992. A headline in
Saturday's New River Current about the no-parole status of two of the
three convicted killers in the Montgomery County case gave the incorrect
year for the crime.
Four years after helping police capture three people later convicted of murdering a manager of a Christiansburg shoe store, Stuart Arbuckle got welcome news recently when checking on the trio's parole status.
Arbuckle learned that two people convicted of murdering the Pulaski County woman in June 1992 after abducting her at a Christiansburg bank night deposit are ineligible for parole.
Paul William Morehead, 24, and Katina Lynn Zelenak, 24, "are ineligible for parole ever simply because each one was convicted of three violent offenses," of murder and two separate incidences of robbery, each involving the use of a deadly weapon, Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith said last week.
Arbuckle said he learned of the pair's ineligibility for parole about one month ago when he received letters from the Parole Board.
"I was like, 'wow, cool,'" Arbuckle said. "Two of them are gone. No sweat. I don't have to worry about Morehead's supposed threats when he was in jail."
Arbuckle said a Montgomery County Jail inmate who testified against Morehead told him after the trial that Morehead had said he would do his time, get released and the "first thing he was going to do was to come out and get rid of me. That worried me. I don't know if it would ever have come about."
Morehead, who lived in Pulaski County, was sentenced in 1993 to life in prison plus 44 years for the murder and robbery of Lorna Raines Crockett, a 32-year-old mother of three sons, and the attempted robbery of Arbuckle, then a Domino's Pizza employee who was accosted as he made a night deposit at a Blacksburg bank.
The triggerman in Crockett's murder was never firmly established because of a lack of clear evidence and because of Zelenak's changing stories over which man fired the shots. First, she said another person with her and Morehead - William Ray Smith Jr. - fired both shots, then changed her story to say Morehead and Smith each fired one shot. Smith maintained that Morehead fired both shots, one of which was fatal. Morehead said Smith was the triggerman.
Using a cellular phone in his truck, Arbuckle followed a car out of the bank parking lot and led police to the trio.
Zelenak, of Christiansburg, received life plus 16 years in prison for the Crockett and Arbuckle crimes in 1993. She also received 25 years in Pulaski County for two other robberies, malicious wounding and conspiracy. Morehead received an additional 15 years after entering a plea agreement to the same charges. After Morehead and Zelenak were convicted of the murder, it was projected by prosecutors and defense attorneys that Zelenak and Morehead could be eligible for parole in as little as 15 years. But Arbuckle - now the owner of a Christiansburg pizza restaurant - recently learned from the state Parole Board that neither Zelenak nor Morehead will ever be eligible for parole.
That's because when a person is convicted in Virginia of three separate violent crimes of murder, rape or robbery involving a deadly weapon, that person becomes ineligible for parole. With the murder conviction in Christiansburg and two later robbery convictions in Pulaski, the pair meet that criteria.
"I'm thrilled," Keith said.
Keith had seen the word "ineligible" next to the pair's names on parole updates his office received, but said "it didn't really strike me that firmly until Stuart called up." Keith called the Parole Board to confirm the ineligibility.
Joe Painter, a Blacksburg lawyer who represented Zelenak, said the "no-parole" status comes as no surprise to him.
"I've known about that for some time now. ... That's been on the books for quite some time. She's been aware of it ever since she got to Goochland [a women's prison]," Painter said.
Smith, 22, of Pulaski, who pleaded guilty to murder, abduction, robbery, two counts of using a firearm, conspiracy to rob and attempted robbery, does not face the same no-parole status. Because Smith had fewer separate violent offenses, he will eventually be eligible for parole. His first parole hearing is in 2007. Convicted murderers are not generally granted parole on their first try, especially by the tougher Parole Board that's been in place under Gov. George Allen and the spillover effect of the fairly new "no-parole" law that went into effect July 1, 1995.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB