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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 5, 1991                   TAG: 9102050448
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TEEN TO BE TRIED AS AN ADULT IN MURDER TRIAL

A 17-year-old Roanoke youth was indicted Monday by a Roanoke grand jury on charges of shooting a man who was wielding a baseball bat in an argument on a Roanoke sidewalk last November.

Marlon Jay Johnson of the 1400 block of Patterson Avenue Southwest will be tried as an adult on charges of murder and using a firearm in the slaying of William G. Copeland, 31. Copeland was killed outside his sister's home on the 300 block of 13th Street Southwest last Nov. 16.

A teen-age friend of Johnson's testified that as Copeland and Johnson argued, Copeland removed an aluminum baseball bat from the trunk of a car and Johnson had pulled a .38-caliber revolver and was holding it in his left hand. Copeland swung the bat in an apparent effort to knock the gun from Johnson's hand.

As Johnson turned and was running away, he fired a shot that struck Copeland in the chest, the friend testified. Copeland was pronounced dead on arrival at Roanoke Memorial Hospital minutes later.

Keywords:
ROMUR

by CNB