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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991                   TAG: 9104040486
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Laurence Hammack
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

N.Y. MAN GETS 11-22 YEARS IN KILLING

A murder charge against Alberto Gonzalez of the Bronx was reduced to manslaughter in a plea agreement, according to Charisse Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Bronx County district attorney's office.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty to the June 1989 killing of Bryan "Chipper" Gunn, 18, of Northwest Roanoke.

Judge Gerald Sheindoin sentenced him to 11 to 22 years for manslaughter, plus a five-to-15-year sentence for criminal possession of a handgun. The sentences will run concurrently.

Gonzalez had been charged with second-degree murder, robbery, use of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.

Authorities have said that Gunn was in New York 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, but New York authorities have said the investigation still was open.

Gonzalez was serving a 3 1/2-to-seven-year term on an unrelated robbery charge at the time of his indictment in December.

Authorities believe 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 had accompanied him, authorities learned that Gunn had been shot.