ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 27, 1996 TAG: 9611270045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
Veronica Via, who figured her newborn daughter would be better off dead than growing up poor and fatherless, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for beating her to death at a Roanoke homeless shelter.
"This has been a nightmare for me," Via said, her voice breaking with emotion as she asked Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein to consider a lighter sentence.
"I have prayed and asked the Lord to forgive me, and I believe that he has," Via told the judge as she held a Bible. "And I ask you and the court to forgive me and give me another chance to somehow make up for what I've done."
But Weckstein found no reason to reduce a 20-year sentence that a jury recommended for Via in October, after convicting her of first-degree murder. Weckstein imposed the sentence and ordered that Via be placed on probation for three years after she's released - directing the 29-year-old woman to have no contact with small children as part of her probation.
Via will be eligible for release after serving 85 percent of her sentence, or 17 years.
Abandoned by the child's father, shunned by her own family and saddled with financial problems that left her homeless, Via wanted to send her 14-day-old daughter, Jasmine, to a "better place," she told police earlier this year.
So on the night of Dec.16, 1995, in a small bedroom at the Transitional Living Center on 24th Street Northwest, Via held her child to her chest and struck her "10 times, maybe more" in the back of her head with an open hand.
"I know that she was going to be with the Lord," Via told Detective K.L. Sidwell of the Roanoke Police Department.
In asking Weckstein to consider suspending part of Via's sentence, Assistant Public Defender Steve Milani pointed out that Via was tried under new "truth-in-sentencing" laws that abolished parole. Noting that the jury deliberated just 10 minutes before recommending the minimum sentence of 20 years for Via, Milani suggested the punishment might have been less if juries were allowed to suspend sentences as judges are.
"My suggestion to the court is that if there really was truth in sentencing, we would allow juries to suspend portions of a sentence," Milani said.
But Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony asked Weckstein to leave the sentence intact, noting that the jury was not told that Via had another infant who died under suspicious circumstances seven years ago. Via was never charged in connection with the death, and Weckstein had instructed prosecutors to make no mention of it during her trial.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Veronica Via. color. KEYWORDS: ROMURby CNB