Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 7, 1991 TAG: 9102070383
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Short
David W. Fore, administrator of Clayton Fore's estate, has filed a motion for judgment in Bedford County Circuit Court against 41-year-old Beattie Coe, who was found guilty last month.
Fore's surviving relatives are demanding $1 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
The suit says Coe had a responsibility to handle his firearm with care.
"Notwithstanding said duties, on June 1, 1990, Coe recklessly and carelessly handled and used his firearm in such a wilful, wanton and reckless manner as to shoot [Clayton] Fore in the chest," the suit claims.
Court testimony in the criminal trial revealed that Coe approached Fore and Fore's cousin along a gravel road in Jordantown after he heard their truck speed by his house.
When Fore told him to mind his own business, Coe shot Fore once through the heart with a tiny derringer pistol he kept in his car.
Coe testified that the two men had threatened him and that he was merely defending himself, but jurors found Coe guilty of second-degree murder and a firearms charge.
They recommended a 17-year prison sentence. A judge has not formally set Coe's sentence and he remains free on bond.
Coe was a member of the Stewartsville rescue squad and a longtime employee of Norfolk Southern Corp.
by CNB