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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993                   TAG: 9302100296
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DIANE SIMPSON and DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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GRAND JURY TO CONSIDER DEATH CASE

Nancy Lee Campbell went home after a Christmas Eve quarrel with her husband and started to dismantle their artificial tree.

Campbell also put a hunting rifle - and one bullet - in the pickup truck parked beside the couple's Roanoke County home.

When her husband came home, the argument moved to the driveway, where he was was shot once in the lower back, piercing a vein.

David Campbell, 45, bled to death before rescue crews arrived.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Joseph Clarke found sufficient evidence Tuesday to support a first-degree murder charge against Nancy Lee Campbell.

Clarke forwarded the charge to an April 2 grand jury, which will determine if a trial should be scheduled. Campbell, 46, of the 2300 block of Eastland Road, is free on bond.

Her attorney, Charlie Phillips, called no witnesses Tuesday but suggested that his client may have acted in self-defense.

Under questioning by Phillips, police officers testified that they found a sledgehammer near David Campbell's body.

Outside the courtroom, Phillips described the marriage as turbulent, with "a lot of physical abuse."

At the time of his death, David Campbell faced charges that he fired a gun at his wife on Dec. 5.

Police at first charged Nancy Campbell with involuntary manslaughter. But the charge was elevated to murder when an autopsy found that her husband had been shot in the back.

Keywords:
ROMUR

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