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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990                   TAG: 9004030400
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE:    CHRISTIANSBURG -                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHRISTIANBURG MAN GETS 29-YEAR RAPE SENTENCE

A judge said Monday that a 20-year-old Christiansburg man convicted of raping a family friend has shown no remorse and sentenced him to 29 years in prison, as a jury recommended.

Phillip Allan Shephard of Spruce Street was convicted March 23 by a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury of rape, attempted sodomy and entering a home with intent to commit rape.

Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith said a background report done after the verdict showed that Shephard was not sorry for what he did.

"He has no remorse, no concern for the victim in this crime," Keith told Judge Kenneth Devore.

Devore agreed.

"I'm with Mr. Keith. [Shephard] still shows no remorse. Even if you assume what he says actually happened - and I'm like the jury, I'm not sure I believe him - what he did was wrong," Devore said before imposing the sentence. "He ruined a young woman's entire life."

Shephard testified that he raped the woman, whom he had known for years, after her husband offered to pay him $10,000.

The jury convicted Shephard of breaking into the 28-year-old woman's home in September while her husband was away and while her children slept. He blindfolded her, raped her and attempted to sodomize her, according to testimony by Shephard and the woman.

Shephard's attorney, Keith Neely of Christiansburg, asked Devore to allow sentences for each of the three charges to be served at the same time. That would have given Shephard 20 years to serve, but Devore rejected that.

Devore did accept from Neely a stack of 10 letters written by people who know Shephard, including neighbors, the parents of the girl he was engaged to marry and the pastor of the Merrimac Pentecostal Holiness Church to which Shephard belonged.

"Phillip went to church and tried to be a Christian. He always tried very hard to show kindness to everyone he met," wrote Mark Woolwine, a friend of Shephard's.

Devore took about 10 minutes to read the letters before imposing the sentence. Shephard, with his arm in a sling as a result of a motorcycle wreck last month, hung his head and cried as he was led out of the courtroom.

by CNB