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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 22, 1991                   TAG: 9103220984
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                LENGTH: Short

WOMAN CHARGED IN CHILD'S DEATH MOVED

A woman charged in the suffocation death of a 6-year-old York County girl has been transferred to Central State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Mary Johnson was separated from the rest of the prisoners at the Newport News jail because of threats while being held there.

"We kept her locked down to keep the other inmates away," Lt. William Dunn of the Newport News Sheriff's Department said Thursday.

Johnson, who is charged in the abduction and suffocation death of 6-year-old Tierra Cooke, spent Tuesday and Wednesday in the Newport News jail before her transfer to the Petersburg hospital Thursday.

Judge Herbert I.L. Feild of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in Yorktown said he ordered the transfer after York County Sheriff's Department officials witnessed her behaving unusually following a Tuesday morning court hearing. Smith said the woman was acting out self-destructive behavior.

- Associated Press

by CNB