Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: TUESDAY, May 8, 1990 TAG: 9005080705 SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: EVENING SOURCE: associated press DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Short
When asked for a final comment Monday, Arthur Donovan Jarrell, a 37-year-old former mail carrier at Newport News Shipbuilding, quoted the Bible and told Circuit Judge Walter J. Ford he was sorry for his son's murder.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney James P. Bohnaker, who had asked for a life sentence for first-degree murder, said he was satisfied that Jarrell will be locked up.
Defense attorneys Thomas L. Hunter and Robert W. Lawrence tried unsuccessfully at Jarrell's March 14 trial to prove that the crime was not premeditated and that their client had "snapped" when his son, Samuel, struck him in the groin with a hammer. The boy was stabbed 38 times with a fillet knife.