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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 7, 1991                   TAG: 9102070581
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HUSBAND CHARGED IN BEATING

Roanoke police have charged a 65-year-old man in connection with an attack that left his wife lying in bed with serious injuries for 10 days before she was discovered.

Beula Huffman, who told authorities that she was beaten with a large stick, was discovered in bed Tuesday by her sister-in-law and taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

Hospital officials declined to release her condition at the request of family members, but police said Huffman, 64, was scheduled for surgery today in efforts to save a seriously broken leg.

Her husband, Cecil Elmer Huffman, has been arrested and charged with malicious wounding.

Police said that after the attack, Beula Huffman apparently lay in bed at her home on the 800 block of Dale Avenue Southeast with no medical treatment until she was found by her sister-in-law.

Huffman told police that she had no telephone to call for help and that she was unable to move very far after the Jan. 26 attack. With little food in the house, she lay in pain for 10 days until her sister-in-law dropped by for a visit and found her, police said.

Although her husband lived at the Dale Avenue address at times, he also apparently spent time at another Roanoke home, police said. He was arrested at the Roanoke City Jail, where he is being held on an unrelated charge.

Authorities said they made an arrest after interviewing the victim, who identified the assailant and said the attack happened in her home.

In addition to suffering a broken leg, Huffman also had cuts and bruises on her forehead and left eye.

by CNB