Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991 TAG: 9103190268
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER LENGTH: Medium
The 26-year-old heavy-equipment operator from Franklin County also will be sentenced today in Roanoke County for a similar assault on a Roanoke woman on the Blue Ridge Parkway on July 9.
Before Burnopp's arrest in August, another man had been arrested for the Roanoke County offense. After the similar attack occurred in Franklin County, authorities realized they had jailed the wrong man in a case of mistaken identity.
The other man, Kenneth E. Bailey, a 30-year-old Alexandria roofer, spent 12 days in jail until Burnopp was arrested. He was arrested after victims identified him in a photographic lineup. Not only did he look strikingly similar to Burnopp, but Burnopp's car was registered to an uncle named Kenneth A. Bailey.
Burnopp, who pleaded guilty to both offenses in January, testified Monday that he was remorseful and ashamed of what he did, according to Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood.
Defense witnesses testified that Burnopp had a terrible background, was beaten severely as a child and was facing extreme marital and financial difficulties when the rapes occurred, Hapgood said.
Testimony showed that Burnopp was a "revenge-type rapist" who sometimes could not remember what he had done, he said.
Circuit Judge B.A. Davis III sentenced Burnopp to 45 years for rape and five years for sodomy in the Franklin County case.
According to the woman's statements to police, she was driving south on U.S. 220 when a man in a car behind her kept flashing his headlights. Believing she had car trouble, she pulled over onto the side of the road where the man dragged her into the woods and raped her.
The Roanoke woman told police Burnopp stopped her the same way on the parkway and dragged her into a wooded area and attempted to rape her.
by CNB