Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 5, 1991 TAG: 9102050275
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PRINCE GEORGE LENGTH: Long
James G. Beasley, a 49-year-old former engineer at General Electric Co. in Salem, pleaded guilty in Prince George County Circuit Court to charges of abduction, malicious wounding, use of a firearm and brandishing a firearm.
The woman Beasley abducted has told police that he handcuffed, raped and sexually abused her over a four-hour period while videotaping the offenses. Police have described Beasley's behavior as "not inconsistent with that of a sexual sadist" who could have committed similar offenses before.
Despite that, authorities did not charge Beasley with rape.
Commonwealth's Attorney H. Martin Robertson said that's because police were uncertain exactly where the rape occurred. It could have happened in Petersburg, Prince George County or possibly Dinwiddie County, he said.
Defense attorney Pat Doherty has said that Beasley denies having forcible sex with the woman. But Robertson maintained the victim did not consent.
"There's no question she was raped," he said. "But we just don't know where it happened."
Under a plea agreement reached Monday, Beasley will face a maximum punishment of 33 years in prison when he is sentenced later by Judge Robert G. O'Hara.
Robertson said he intends to ask for a substantial term based on the "bizarre . . . and extremely serious" nature of the charges.
Beasley had been charged with the attempted murder of Prince George Police Sgt. Mike Vrable, who arrested him Nov. 19 in a tense confrontation after chance led Vrable to where Beasley had taken the woman in a remote part of Prince George County.
Under the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to reduce that charge to brandishing a firearm, while dismissing a fifth charge that Beasley had an illegal silencer on the gun he pointed at Vrable.
Authorities said the attempted-murder charge was reduced because Beasley never shot at Vrable; the silencer charge was dropped because a lab test determined that it was not an illegal device.
Beasley, who wore a dark blue business suit to the hearing, spoke only to answer routine questions the judge asked before accepting his guilty pleas. He paused only once, when O'Hara asked if he was pleading guilty because he was, in fact, guilty.
"Yes, sir," Beasley answered. Family members who attended the brief hearing declined to comment afterward. Doherty said they have remained "very supportive."
Beasley was returned to jail under a $300,000 bond to await sentencing, scheduled for April 1.
Vrable, the only person to testify Monday, brought to the witness stand items police seized from Beasley's vehicle in November - a black video camcorder; a Polaraid camera used to photograph the victim; and a gray toolbox stocked with handcuffs, duct tape, straps and a stun gun.
Other weapons, handcuffs, video equipment and a cassette tape labeled "Jackie" were recovered in a search of Beasley's home in the West Club Subdivision of Salem.
Vrable's testimony - combined with an account by the victim at a preliminary hearing last month - provided the following summary of what happened Nov. 19:
The 27-year-old woman was walking home on Wythe Street in Petersburg when Beasley, reportedly on his way to pick up his mother for Thanksgiving, stopped and offered the woman a ride.
As soon as the woman got inside Beasley's four-wheel-drive vehicle, he used a remote control to lock the door behind her.
The woman said Beasley then drove her to a remote area and raped her in the back of the vehicle. She said Beasley bound her hands and feet with handcuffs and duct tape and put a leash around her neck before forcing her to have sex.
She also said that Beasley forced her to strike suggestive poses and fondle herself while he videotaped her.
Afer more than three hours, Beasley then drove the woman to a secluded spot in Prince George County.
At 3:52 p.m., eight minutes before Vrable was scheduled to end his shift, he was checking an isolated service road when he heard a woman scream and saw her running toward him.
The woman, whose right arm was cut and covered with blood, had handcuffs around her wrist and ripped tape around her ankles. At first glance Vrable thought she might have been an escaped prisoner.
The woman later said Beasley had just removed the handcuffs and tape from her ankles and was preparing to videotape her when he realized that someone was approaching.
Beasley then dragged the woman behind his 4-wheel-drive vehicle and told her to shut up, she said. Beasley pointed a gun at her and held a knife to her ribs, but she elbowed him in the chest, screamed and ran toward Vrable's patrol car, she said.
Shortly before she fled, the woman was slashed on the arm, a wound that required surgery to repair severed arteries and nerves.
As the woman screamed, "He's going to kill me," Vrable saw Beasley come out of the woods with a knife in one hand and a gun equipped with a homemade silencer in the other.
When Beasley kept approaching, Vrable pulled his gun and fired a shot. At that point, Beasley dropped his weapons and surrendered.
"You should have just killed me," Vrable quoted Beasley as saying when he was taken into custody.
by CNB