Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991 TAG: 9103140230
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sam "Sammy-town" McBride, who was part of the group Fang, stands convicted of a manslaughter charge in the death of Dixie Lee Carney, 24.
Carney, a 1983 graduate of Patrick Henry High School, was a punk rock devotee who followed McBride from Roanoke to California. She was strangled Aug. 6, 1989.
McBride is expected to serve 11 years in prison under a plea agreement. He will be sentenced formally on April 19 in the Superior Court of Alameda County, Calif.
Carney's mother, Peggy, who still lives in Roanoke, said the sentence is too light.
"I think it is very unfair, unjust," she said. "I think he should have gotten life. He took her life; why should he get off so easy? I think he should get the death penalty. When you take someone's life, yours should be taken for it."
Matthew Golde, a deputy district attorney in Oakland, said he agreed to the plea agreement because of a lack of physical evidence linking McBride to the crime. Golde said he also was uncomfortable with the effectiveness of his witnesses.
"The witnesses we do have said they were either high on cocaine or marijuana or drinking beer," Golde said. "I am convinced this guy did it, but as a district attorney you must go with what you can prove and not with what you believe. Our witnesses are just a bunch of dope-using guys."
Golde said the same witnesses had told police that McBride was addicted to heroin. One said they had seen as much as $15,000 in cash in Carney's apartment, which was adorned with rock band posters containing swastikas and the words, "kill the police."
Court papers filed in the case outline the following series of events and allegations against McBride:
When police walked into the one-bedroom apartment Aug. 6, 1989, Carney's body was lying on a mattress on the floor. There were several open bottles of wine cooler and beer strewn throughout the apartment. There were no obvious signs of a struggle.
Mitchell Cooper and another man, Martin McDonald, told police that Carney lived in the apartment with McBride. The two men said McBride and Carney had dropped them off in Sacramento, Calif., on Aug. 4 so they could attend a Grateful Dead concert.
On Aug. 6, about 1 a.m., the two men returned to Carney's apartment looking for a place to sleep. Cooper noticed steam coming from an open window in the apartment's bathroom.
After knocking and getting no response, the two men thought Carney or McBride may have been in the shower. They walked across the street to a pay phone and called the apartment. Carney answered, unlocked the door, and went to bed.
A few minutes later, Carney came into the kitchen where the two men were, pulled open the refrigerator and took out a wine cooler. Soon, they were smoking marijuana from a water pipe with another man, Dana Joerns, who had been sleeping on the couch after arriving from Texas.
Carney, who told friends she planned to break up with McBride, gathered his clothes and put them outside. She told the men to let her handle McBride when he got home. She had told Joerns that McBride had taken some money she was saving.
About four hours later, Cooper woke up and noticed McBride fumbling with some keys or a chain in the kitchen.
"Hey, Sammy," Cooper said.
McBride nodded and walked toward the bedroom, where he started talking to Carney. Cooper couldn't tell if they were arguing.
But a few minutes later, he heard Carney's car starting up before he fell back asleep until early afternoon.
The three men then found Carney's purse in the bathroom before knocking on her bedroom door. When she didn't answer, they entered and found her dead underneath the covers.
Cooper called police.
Meanwhile, McBride had gone to the house of Patricia Quan, where he flashed a lot of money, bought some heroin and shot up until he passed out, police said.
McBride later sold his motorcycle to another man for $100.
Soon, police tracked McBride to Baltimore, where he seemed to have a lot of money and bought a lot of drugs. Richard Madore, who went to New York with McBride, told police they stayed high for about two weeks.
McBride returned to California on Sept. 11, 1989, but had hired an attorney who told police that McBride would answer questions only if an arrest warrant was issued.
On Jan. 2, 1990, after a story on the case ran on "A Current Affair," a nationally syndicated television show, Patrick Fagan called police. He said McBride had confessed to killing Carney after she refused to give him money.
McBride was arrested Jan. 20 as he tried to board a plane in Anchorage, Alaska.
by CNB