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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 21, 1993                   TAG: 9304210266
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUSINS GET LIFE TERMS

Prosecutors called the murder of 71-year-old Douglas E. Webb, who had bought a color television for his killers the day he died, one of Roanoke's most aggravated killings in recent years.

Testimony has shown that Gary and Lewis Draper plotted to rob Webb in September, assuming that he had some money left over after he purchased the television.

As it turned out, the Drapers got $11 - which they spent on cigarettes and junk food shortly after Webb was killed.

Webb was suffocated in the back seat of his car as the three drove through Southeast Roanoke. The car then was rammed into a parked tractor-trailer and set on fire in what prosecutors said was an attempt to destroy evidence and make his death look like an accident.

Ever since an investigation led Detective Neil Tolrud to the Draper cousins, they have given conflict ing statements in which they essentially blamed each other.

But Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Gardner argued they were equally guilty and deserved life in prison.

"It was a joint effort," she said. "They were in it together, and you cannot assign degrees of blame."

Lewis Draper, 24, who was convicted by a jury earlier this year, was sentenced to two life terms for murder and robbery.

Gary Draper, 23, had pleaded no contest to the same charges and received life for murder and 50 years for robbery.

Both sentences were handed down by Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein.

In asking for leniency, both Drapers pointed to troubled lives that included being victims of child abuse and alcoholism.

"They just didn't know any other life, but to drink and carry on," Gary Draper's mother testified.

"It's not an excuse," said Jack Altizer, a defense attorney who represented Gary Draper. "It's just an explanation of how this kid grew up on the streets."

Webb, a retired postal worker who lived near the Drapers, was known among his neighbors in Southeast Roanoke as a generous man who often spent money on his friends.

The Drapers will become eligible for parole after serving about 12 years in prison, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom.

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