ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996                  TAG: 9607290062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: DANVILLE 

MAN GUILTY IN MURDER OF SLEEPING RIVAL

A Bassett man has been found guilty of the June stabbing death of a Pelham, N.C., man and sentenced to life in prison.

A Danville Circuit Court jury deliberated only 35 minutes Friday before finding William E. Hall, 63, guilty of the first-degree murder of Leon Pruitt. Pruitt, 49, was killed by a single stab wound in the heart as he slept in the trailer home of a friend in Danville.

The two men apparently were involved in a romantic rivalry centering on Linda Payne, 30, of Bassett. Payne testified that she was at the trailer June 1. She said Pruitt was asleep on the couch when Hall entered the trailer and stabbed Pruitt once in the chest with a steak knife. |- Associated Press

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