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

DATE: FRIDAY, May 28, 1993                   TAG: 9305280188
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

A TEARFUL CONFESSION DESCRIBED

Both the sheriff and accused killer were in tears as they argued over how a young mother and daughter came to be stabbed to death in their Carroll County home 1 1/2 years ago.

Thomas Jefferson Midkiff, now being tried for capital murder, had been taken to state police division headquarters in Wytheville by members of the Carroll County Sheriff's Department Dec. 5 and questioned through the night and until after 4 a.m. the next day.

Midkiff, 28, finally confessed to the killings of Sheila Marie Ring, 30, and 2 1/2-year-old Jasmine Celene Sutphin. His attorneys claim that authorities wrung a false confession from him, telegraphing by the way they asked questions how they wanted him to respond.

"He was crying. And I was crying," said Sheriff R.D. Carrico, who obtained the confession.

"You were crying?" asked Fred Werth, one of the defense attorneys.

"Yes sir. When you get into this, there's tears," Carrico said. "This was a very emotional time for both of us."

Midkiff said he and Ring were having an affair when he visited her home on the evening of Dec. 3, 1991, and he "lost it" when she threatened to tell his wife.

He said he stabbed her with a knife from the kitchen and, when the child ran into the room, slashed her also. He said he tossed a burning piece of wood from the fireplace into the room as he left.

Ring's mother, Dorothy Sutphin, testified that her daughter would have told her if she was having an affair with Midkiff or anyone else, and had not.

Sherry Midkiff, the defendant's wife, and her sister testified that - following Midkiff's arrest after his confession - they examined clothing from unwashed laundry that Midkiff had worn when he left home on the evening of the murders. It had no bloodstains, they said.

Forensics tests on a T-shirt and jeans also showed no traces of blood, according to earlier testimony.

Sherry Midkiff denied that her husband knew Ring other than by sight. But a witness Tuesday placed Midkiff at Ring's home on the afternoon of the murders, saying he was on the porch talking to her in the doorway.

Today will be the fifth day of the capital murder trial.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB