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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990                   TAG: 9007190579
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TRIAL DELAYED BY NAMING OF NEW PROSECUTOR

The hit-and-run trial of a man accused of killing a Washington and Lee University student with his car last year was delayed for a month Wednesday after a new prosecutor was appointed to the case.

Staunton Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond Robertson will prosecute Charles B. "Blake" Comer, who is charged with hit and run and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Mary Ashley Scarborough.

Comer was scheduled to go on trial July 25 in Rockbridge County Circuit Court. But with Robertson's appointment by Judge Rudolph Bumgardner III coming just a week before that date, the trial was moved to Aug. 29.

Scarborough, 19, was struck and killed as she walked on Washington Street near the Lexington Police Department on March 16, 1989.

Robertson is the second special prosecutor to be appointed to the case after Rockbridge County Commonwealth's Attorney Eric Sisler withdrew last month after the Scarborough family raised questions about a possible conflict of interest. Sisler represents W&L in his private practice as well as serving as prosecutor.

Sisler had originally asked Buena Vista Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Irvine to take over the case, but Irvine declined after he was assigned the case while he was on vacation.

The Comer case represents the second time recently that Robertson has been asked to oversee a case outside his jurisdiction. He was asked to oversee a state police probe of Bath County Sheriff James Bryan, whom he cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

Comer voluntarily checked into Rockbridge County Jail on June 23 because, according to his attorney, "he knows he's done something wrong." Comer could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted on both the hit and run and involuntary manslaughter counts.

Police said Comer, a W&L student at the time, admitted striking the girl after an informant led police to him in November.

by CNB