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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 25, 1992                   TAG: 9203250293
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

EMPTY PARKING PLACE DRIVES WITNESS TO RECANT

Not long after Vernita Belcher had assured a Danville jury that her boyfriend could not have stolen a car, she was back in the courtroom to say, in effect, never mind.

Shaking and crying, Belcher told the judge that John Austin Freeman had just stolen her own car and jumped bond while the jury was deliberating his fate.

"She acted like she was all to pieces," Danville Commonwealth's Attorney William Fuller said.

Freeman, who was arrested in Salem in September on charges of stealing a car from a Danville dealership, had relied on Belcher's testimony for an alibi during his trial Monday.

Belcher told the jury that on the night in question, she and Freeman were at a Roanoke skating rink.

But Freeman, 30, didn't stick around to see if the jury believed her. Officials said Tuesday he was still missing.

"He must have thought after the [closing] arguments that his case wasn't too good," Fuller said.

The jury - unaware of the latest turn in the case - returned with a verdict: guilty as charged.

by CNB