Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 5, 1993 TAG: 9302050162
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
DEATH-PLOT CHARGES RESOLVED
Bobby Wayne Slone acted as if there was nothing wrong with his marriage that arson and murder couldn't fix.The 52-year-old appliance salesman set up a plan to kill his stepson, whom Slone accused of sabotaging the marriage.
Slone also planned to torch his wife's house in an attempt to force her to move back to his Boxley Hills home.
The plan fell apart last summer, a prosecutor contended, after the person Slone solicited to kill the stepson and burn his wife's house went to Roanoke County police.
Slone pleaded no contest Thursday to a single count of felony solicitation in a plea agreement in Roanoke County Circuit Court.
Circuit Judge Kenneth Trabue found sufficient evidence to find Slone guilty, but took the agreement under advisement until a background report on Slone is completed. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for March 3.
Slone has agreed to a three-year prison term, but he could become eligible for release in March because of credit for eight months he served in pretrial custody without bond.
Prosecutor Randy Leach introduced transcripts of secretly taped conversations in which Slone asked his own son - then a 17-year-old juvenile delinquent - to burn down his wife's house and "eliminate" her son.
Jonathan Apgar, Slone's attorney, said Slone never intended to set the scheme into motion.
In a statement to police, Slone contended that the whole thing was a "test" to see how far down the path of criminality his son would be willing to go.
The youth, Brian Slone, revealed the plot to police in July when he faced charges of burglarizing his father's house in the 5800 block of Santa Anita Terrace.
The younger Slone told police his father paid him to break into the home as part of an insurance fraud.