Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 12, 1991 TAG: 9104121045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Earl Woodrow Dooley, 54, suffers from a long list of ailments that could require him to have immediate medical attention at any time, a Moneta doctor testified at Dooley's sentencing hearing Thursday.
Dooley has hypertension, arthritis, emphysema, diseases of the colon and stomach and a history of alcoholism, Dr. Linda S. Beahm, a defense witness, told the judge.
Beahm also testified that Dooley had showed "caring and supportive" treatment for his 4-month-old baby boy.
"I have concern that the mother alone may not be a capable caretaker," Beahm said. Dooley, she said, had showed that he could care for the infant.
Despite the testimony, Circuit Judge William Sweeney imposed the jury's sentence - the longest allowable for the charges.
"The evidence in the record speaks for itself," Sweeney said, sentencing Dooley to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder and two additional years on a firearms charge.
Asking that the jury sentence be upheld, prosecutor James Updike cited a lengthy list of Dooley's past convictions for assault and battery, firearms violations and destruction of property.
The crimes, which were not referred to at the trial, dated to 1955, Updike said.
"If the jury could have known about this, it might have been to his detriment," Updike said.
Testifying on his own behalf, Dooley told the judge he wished his 61-year-old brother, Tunney, had never died.
In June 1990, Tunney Dooley showed up at Earl's Bedford apartment late one night and Earl Dooley shot and killed him.
At the trial, Dooley claimed he was merely defending himself.
"I feel terrible about it," Dooley said Thursday. "I wish it hadn't happened. I wish someone could have been somewhere else thatn where he was at.
by CNB