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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 2, 1990                   TAG: 9005020416
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: STAFFORD                                 LENGTH: Medium

DOUBLE CAPITAL MURDER CASE SENT TO GRAND JURY

A judge on Tuesday sent to a grand jury the case of a Mississippi man charged with a December crime spree that authorities say included one abduction, two murders and an attempted murder.

Stafford County General District Judge John W. Scott Jr. set May 21 for a grand jury to hear the case of Leroy Bullock, 46, of Walls, Miss.

Bullock, who was arrested in Tucson, Ariz., in February, also has been charged with capital murder in the deaths last year of two women in Jonesboro, Ark.

In Stafford County, Bullock is charged with two counts of capital murder in the shooting deaths of Veronica Pettit and Velma Rexrode, both 72. He also is charged with the attempted murder of Pettit's 81-year-old husband, Harvey, and the abduction of the couple's daughter-in-law, Debra Pettit.

Pettit, who survived a gunshot wound in the neck, and Debra Pettit, who escaped after being locked in the trunk of her mother-in-law's car, both testified during Tuesday's three-hour hearing before Scott.

Pettit said Bullock showed up at the front door of their home on Dec. 19 and "told me he had car trouble and needed a ride to a local motel. He said he knew one of my nieces and a grand-nephew in Mississippi."

Pettit said he and his wife offered Bullock coffee and aspirin for his headache, and then his wife and daughter-in-law offered to drive him to a nearby motel.

Debra Pettit said she and Veronica Pettit were in the family's Honda in the garage ready to leave when Bullock pulled a gun and ordered them both out of the car. He told them to give him all their money, she said, and to put their jewelry on the trunk lid.

She said Bullock was not satisfied with the money and insisted there must be more in the house. He wanted to know if Velma Rexrode, who lived with the Pettits, was in her room.

Bullock put Debra Pettit in the trunk of the car, and then told Veronica Pettit he was going to tie her up inside the house.

Veronica Pettit and Rexrode were found dead in the house by Pettit, who testified that Bullock appeared from around a corner and shot him in the neck.

His daughter-in-law testified that she was able to escape from the trunk and summon the police from her house next door.

She said Bullock fled in the Honda, which was found abandoned in a nearby shopping center.

by CNB