Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 22, 1991 TAG: 9103220191
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Alberto Gonzalez of the Bronx is scheduled to be sentenced April 1, according to Steven Reed, a spokesman for the Bronx County district attorney's office.
Gonzalez faces 11 to 22 years in prison for killing 18-year-old Bryan "Chipper" Gunn of Northwest Roanoke.
Authorities have said Gunn was in New York in June 1989 to buy cocaine to be resold in Roanoke. When the $1,000 deal apparently soured, a suspected drug dealer paid Gonzalez to kill Gunn in a South Bronx motel room, authorities alleged.
No one has been charged with hiring Gonzalez for the contract killing, but Reed said Thursday that the investigation still is open.
Authorities agreed to reduce the charges against Gonzalez in a plea agreement reached this month. He had been charged with second-degree murder, robbery, use of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.
Gonzalez, who was serving a 3 1/2-to-7-year term on an unrelated robbery charge at the time of his indictment in December, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, Reed said.
In the 18 months between the killing and when charges were filed, Gunn's mother, Jacqueline, followed the investigation persistently - at one point alleging that New York authorities had all but given up on the case. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Authorities believe that Gunn may have traveled regularly to New York, a main source of crack cocaine sold in the Roanoke Valley.
At first, Gunn's death was treated as a missing-person report when he did not return from New York. But after confronting two other Roanoke teen-agers who accompanied him, authorities learned that Gunn had been shot.
After that, Reed said, New York police slowly gathered evidence until they thought they had a case strong enough to present to a grand jury in December.
by CNB