ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996             TAG: 9609200035
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER 

STABBING CASE ENDS WITH PLEA AGREEMENTS

Tony Wayne Covey will serve five years in prison for stabbing a Draper man to death after Covey's brother beat the man with a baseball bat.

The May 28, 1995, fight left 31-year-old Windle Jackson Edwards Jr., a father of three, dead.

Covey, 27, of Wytheville, entered a special plea Tuesday in which he maintained his innocence while conceding the state had sufficient evidence to convict him. The "Alford plea" was part of an agreement that reduced the murder charge against Covey to voluntary manslaughter, according to court records.

Last week, Covey's 26-year-old brother, David Eugene Covey, also pleaded guilty in return for a reduced charge of unlawful wounding and a year and four months in prison. David Covey had originally been charged with malicious wounding.

In May, the Pulaski County Circuit Court grand jury indicted Tony Covey on charges of murder, malicious wounding and two counts of attempted malicious wounding.

Under the plea agreement, Circuit Judge Colin Gibb found Tony Covey guilty of the reduced charges of voluntary manslaughter and unlawful wounding. He dismissed the attempted malicious wounding charges. Covey was given a five-year suspended sentence for the unlawful wounding and will serve five years of active, supervised probation when he is released from prison.

Doug Schroder, assistant commonwealth's attorney, said what happened the night of the fight was never clear based on witness testimony. Most or all of the people involved in the fight were drunk and witnesses "gave multiple versions of what happened," Schroder said.

He did not want to take a chance that a jury would acquit Tony Covey based on a self-defense argument, Schroder said.

Bev Davis, co-defense attorney for Covey with Mark Hicks, said the plea agreement was the right conclusion.

"I think the commonwealth attorney's office, as well as myself and Mark Hicks, evaluated the facts of this case correctly," Davis said. "Instead of going through a long, expensive, drawn-out trial ... we came to a compromise settlement where all parties are somewhat satisfied."

Terrance Wade Edwards, brother of the victim, was also originally charged with malicious wounding in the fight. Court records show that charge was dismissed in May.

LENGTH: Short :   50 lines