Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 4, 1992 TAG: 9201040078
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
SALEM MAN INDICTED IN CHILD'S DEATH
A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted a Salem man on a charge of murdering his girlfriend's 18-month-old daughter last July 4.Martinez Maynard Price, 23, was indicted Thursday in the death of Deemechan Chanta Peoples, the daughter of Sarah L. Peoples of Blacksburg. The murder charge was sent to the grand jury in October after a hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Blacksburg police said in July they were called to the emergency room of Montgomery Regional Hospital to investigate possible child abuse. Dr. David Oxley, deputy chief medical examiner for Western Virginia, testified in October that the cause of death was a blow to the abdomen.
Also among 145 indictments:
Robert Cloyd Burton, 40, of Montgomery County, was indicted on a charge of attempted capital murder of Sgt. R.L. Hamlin, a Montgomery County deputy sheriff, on Aug. 9 and using a firearm and possession of a firearm after being convicted of a felony.
The sheriff's office said a woman reported an intoxicated man standing in a road in the Plum Creek area waving a gun.
Deputy J.D. Robinson responded and the woman said the man had gone into a barn. As Robinson approached, a man fired.
Hamlin, state troopers J.L. Lewis and C.A. Burke, and Alcoholic Beverage Control Agent W.L. Goodman came to help. The man left the barn, waving the gun and threatening the officers. He fired the other rounds from his .22-caliber handgun and was arrested, the sheriff's office said. No one was injured. Three other attempted murder charges were not prosecuted.
Thomas Junior Collins, 17, was indicted on a charge of raping a 13-year-old girl on June 28 and an unrelated charge of forcible sodomy on a boy under 13 years old. A Jan. 14 court date was set.
Kenneth William Hypes, 65, of Blacksburg, was indicted on a charge of sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl from May to July 15. Hypes was arrested Aug. 1 in Tennessee, where he was visiting.