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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991                   TAG: 9104040370
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Laurence Hammack
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MAN GETS 21 MONTHS FOR DUI HIT-AND-RUN

A Roanoke man was sentenced to 21 months in jail Wednesday for driving drunk and fleeing the scene of an accident in which he hit a 7-year-old boy riding a bicycle.

Paul Richard Lovell, 44, received the sentence in Roanoke Circuit Court.

Lovell was arrested Oct. 1 after the pickup truck he was driving struck Kevin Perkins as he rode his bike down Yeager Avenue Northeast.

The accident put Perkins in a body cast and kept him at Roanoke Memorial Hospital for almost a month, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Melvin Hill said.

Hill had asked that Perkins serve prison time, arguing that he chose to drive drunk through a residential area in broad daylight. "This is precisely the kind of thing that can happen when you drive under the influence," Hill said.

Lovell, who testified that he was not aware that he had hit Perkins, pleaded guilty earlier to drunken driving and no contest to hit and run.

Judge Roy Willett gave Lovell a 12-month term on the drunken-driving charge and a three-year prison sentence for hit-and-run, but suspended all but 18 months. He also ordered that Lovell be placed on probation for three years after his release from jail.

by CNB