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

DATE: SATURDAY, June 5, 1993                   TAG: 9306050564
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEWISBURG, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Medium

MAN CONVICTED IN SLAYINGS

After six hours of deliberations, a jury found Jacob Beard guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. A sex-related charge was dropped by the judge last week.

Beard had pleaded innocent in the June 1980 shooting deaths of Nancy Santomero, 19, of Huntington, N.Y., and Vicki Durian, 26, of Wellman, Iowa. The two were headed to a gathering of the Rainbow Family in the Monongahela National Forest.

Beard, 47, of Crescent City, Fla., faces life in prison without parole.

Greenbrier County Circuit Judge Charles Lobban said Beard could remain free on bond at least until a July 16 sentencing hearing, "with the provision there will be no threats or intimidation of any person who may have testified here, or any juror."

Several witnesses placed Beard and his red pickup truck at the scene of the shooting, near Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park.

One witness, who was indicted last year but agreed to testify in exchange for immunity, said he saw what appeared to be Beard shooting the two women.

Johnny Washington Lewis, 60, of Jacox said he was sitting in a friend's truck when he saw "the girls falling, a gun crack, Jacob with his hand raised."

The prosecution had presented other witnesses who seemed to implicate Gerald L. Brown, 51, of Droop, who was indicted on the same charges in January. Brown died in February when he choked on food, authorities said.

Seven men, including Beard and Brown, were indicted last year, but all the charges were dropped after allegations that state police might have coerced some witnesses into making false statements.

In January, five of the seven men were indicted again: Beard; Brown; William McCoy, 37, of Hillsboro; Richard Fowler, 41, of Gordonsville, Va.; and Arnold Cutlip, 55, of Lobelia.

Charges were not reinstated against Lewis or Winters C. Walton, 43, of Hillsboro, who testified against Beard in exchange for immunity.

Special prosecutor Walt Weiford on Friday said Beard was the first man prosecuted because "he was the trigger man." Trial dates for the three remaining co-defendants have not been set.