Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 7, 1993 TAG: 9305070108
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Shannon Taylor, 18, was in court Thursday on a charge of assaulting Alicia Kasey, also 18.
Although General District Judge John Apostolou said there was sufficient evidence to convict Taylor, he delayed a final decision until May 27, when the charge may be dismissed.
However, Apostolou said Taylor should spend some time in jail for punching Kasey during a lunch-break altercation in a school hallway on March 30.
Testimony showed that Taylor approached Kasey and asked if she was spreading rumors about him. She testified that he pushed her against a locker and then hit her in the face.
Taylor, however, said he pushed Kasey away and then swung at her only in self-defense, after she lunged at him with an ink pen.
"I was intending to fight back," Kasey admitted in court.
"You've been in a number of fights before, haven't you?" defense attorney S.D. Roberts Moore asked her.
"Correct," Kasey replied.
Taylor, an all-state quarterback and basketball player at Patrick Henry, also was ordered to pay $50 in costs.
Although Moore argued that Taylor was acting in self-defense, Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell had asked that he be convicted - which is unlikely unless there are additional problems before his court date.
by CNB