Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 2, 1991 TAG: 9104020444
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Circuit Judge William Sweeney said he had "no argument" with the praise seven co-workers and relatives had heaped on Coe during an hour-long sentencing hearing Monday morning.
But, Sweeney reminded them, "We tend to view things from where we sit.
"I'm not going to second-guess the jury."
Sweeney formally imposed the jury's punishment for Coe: a 15-year prison term for second-degree murder and two years in prison for the illegal use of a firearm.
Coe, 41, was convicted in January for the fatal shooting of a man he met along a gravel road near his Jordantown home.
Jurors apparently didn't believe Coe's story that he shot at 49-year-old Clayton "Red" Fore only in self-defense after Fore, drunk and violent, threatened to kill him.
During the sentencing hearing, defense attorney Harry Garrett offered Sweeney more than 30 letters friends had written on Coe's behalf. The judge should suspend at least 10 years of the sentence, Garrett argued.
Generally, the letters stated that Coe had been wrongly convicted and that he was a non-violent, caring family man, a probation and parole officer testified.
The officer said he had received most of the letters in the preceding 10 days.
A co-worker of Coe's at Norfolk Southern testified that he knew Coe to be a law-abiding citizen. "I've never known anything bad about him," Jerry Martin told the judge. "I don't believe he has a temper."
Several other men, who volunteered with Coe on the Stewartsville Rescue Squad, described him as hard worker who stayed calm even under the most adverse conditions.
Asked whether Coe might pose a danger to the community, one man said it was just the reverse.
"I think, under the circumstances, we're going to lose a real asset to the community."
Coe will remain free on a $10,000 bond until April 15. That day, he may post a higher bond - $25,000 - and remain free until an appeal is considered, his attorney indicated.
by CNB