Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990 TAG: 9003232843
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Phillip Allen Shephard, who lives in the county's Merrimac section, was arrested Sept. 25 - five days after the 28-year-old woman said she was raped in her home near Christiansburg. He had known the woman for years, the woman testified.
Shephard is being tried on charges of rape, attempted sodomy and entering with intent to commit rape. He pleaded innocent, but in an interview with sheriff's investigators after his arrest, he admitted he raped the woman.
"I did do it," Shephard was heard saying when the tape was played for jurors. "I entered the residence that night and I did what you said."
Circuit Judge Kenneth Devore continued the trial after six hours of testimony. Shephard is scheduled to testify this morning.
The woman testified that she was at home that night with her children. Her husband was out of town and she went to sleep early after reading her Bible.
About 1:30 a.m., a man wearing a mask entered her bedroom, put two bandages and a blindfold over her eyes and took her to a bedroom downstairs, she testified.
He made her put on a pair of stockings and a garter belt and told her not to scream if she and her children wanted to live. He also told her repeatedly that he was being paid to do it, she told the jury.
In the taped interview, Shephard told investigators that he and the woman frequently flirted with each other.
Shephard was fingerprinted by sheriff's investigators the day after the rape was reported. His fingerprints matched those on a bandage wrapper found in the woman's bedroom and he was arrested four days later.
by CNB