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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990                   TAG: 9003231969
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE MAN CHARGED IN SLAYING OF LANDLORD

Herbert Arthur Otey Jr., 30, was arrested Thursday and charged with the murder of Girish R. Desai, 46, manager of Twin Oaks Apartments in the 2500 block of Liberty Road Northwest, police said.

Desai's wife became worried when her husband did not return home from working at the apartments Wednesday night, police said. Early Thursday morning, she went to the building and found her husband lying face down on the kitchen floor of a vacant apartment.

Police said Desai died from a neck injury that resulted from a "violent act." Authorities declined to elaborate on the cause of death until an autopsy is completed, possibly today.

Authorities also declined to comment on a possible motive.

Desai, a native of India who also was a real estate agent for Winn & Co. Realtors in Roanoke, was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived about 7:30 a.m.

Police said Desai had gone to the apartments Wednesday night to meet with prospective tenants. When he did not return, his wife drove to the apartments the next morning and saw his car parked next to apartment No. 7. The car keys were still in the ignition, police said.

After finding the door to the vacant apartment locked, Desai's wife used a hammer to break through the window and found her husband's body, police said.

Police said they found signs of a struggle.

Otey, who lived just two doors away in apartment No. 9, had been a resident at the apartments for only several months, said Dorothy Rosser, a woman who lives upstairs.

Rosser said she has felt "very uneasy" since hearing of the killing. "This is usually a very quiet and nice place to live," she said. "But now I don't know."

The window to apartment No. 7 had been boarded up by early Thursday afternoon.

Police credited an "alert patrol officer" with obtaining information that led to Otey's arrest. Otey was arrested without incident around noon, after police found him on a couch in the basement of a friend's home on Staunton Avenue Northwest.

He was being held Thursday in the Roanoke City Jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond.

Desai, who lived on Middleton Road in North Roanoke County, was a "super nice guy," according to Winston Underwood, owner of Winn & Co. Realtors.

Possessing a keen financial mind and a seemingly endless amount of energy, Desai always was working on a project, Underwood said. Before he bought the apartment complex, Desai was owner of Monticello Home for Adults on Williamson Road, which he sold in 1987.

Desai recently had said that he planned to sell the apartments on Liberty Road, Underwood said.

"He was always on the go, always a cheerful and smiling person," Underwood said. "And he was not only a business person, but also a family person."

Keywords:
ROMUR