Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 18, 1993 TAG: 9306180236
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Nancy Lee Campbell placed her right hand over her mouth and sobbed as a court official read the jury verdict at 30 minutes past midnight.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Bill Broadhurst said the case was difficult to prosecute, because jurors felt sympathetic toward Campbell, whose husband had beaten her repeatedly during their five-year marriage.
"It was a hard case," Broadhurst said, "but there are ways to get out of an abusive relationship other than to shoot someone in the back with a high-powered rifle."
The Circuit Court jury of eight women and four men set a 2 1/2-year sentence. Campbell would serve only a few months in jail if Judge G.O. Clemens upholds the jury's sentence.
She remains free on bond until an Aug. 17 sentencing hearing.
In setting a jail term below the maximum 10-year penalty for manslaughter, the jurors apparently took into account the physical abuse Campbell had suffered at the hands of her husband, Donald "Bugs" Campbell.
Campbell, 46, testified that she fired the rifle in self-defense as her husband rushed at her with a sledgehammer poised above his head. But an autopsy showed that Donald Campbell, 45, had been shot in the back.
After deliberating six hours, jurors concluded that Campbell deliberately killed her husband in heat of passion, but not with premeditation, as the prosecution contended.
by CNB