Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 28, 1993 TAG: 9307280173
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It was not the same Victor that I knew," his mother - whose wounds had to be closed with stitches - said tearfully in court Tuesday. "I knew deep down that Victor - something had happened to him. Because Victor would never have done that."
Sheriff's deputies came to the house that afternoon, but left after the mother said she didn't want to press charges.
She didn't see Woody again for eight months. In October, he left his wife and moved back in with his parents. His mother said she asked him why he had attacked her, but he said he didn't know.
But this June 10 - exactly 16 months after the attack - he came to the Botetourt Sheriff's Office and said he had something to get off his chest:
Woody, 30, said he had planned to kill both his mother and father for their inheritance, Capt. G.W. Guilliams testified Tuesday.
Guilliams said Woody claimed that he and his wife were desperate for money, and that they plotted together that he would murder his parents with a pistol. But, Woody said, he lost his nerve and tried to use a wrench instead.
Guilliams said there was no evidence to support Woody's claim Anybody that would do that, there would have to be something wrong with them. Father of accused that his wife was involved, and that Woody seemed to be trying to get back at his wife for problems they were having. No charges are being pursued against her.
Tuesday, a judge in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court found evidence to support going forward with an attempted-murder charge against Woody. Judge Robert Culpepper sent the case to the county grand jury.
Culpepper set bond at $25,000. Woody's attorney, James Roe, advised Woody's parents not to bail him out. Sheriff's officials said there was some concern that Woody might commit suicide.
A psychiatric assessment showed that Woody was sane enough to stand trial. But Roe indicated he will seek another evaluation to see whether Woody was sane at the time of the attack.
For Woody's mother, the trauma of having been assaulted by her own son has been heightened by having to testify against him.
When her son hit her from behind, she said, it felt like an electric shock. "I thought what was happening to me, was happening to him," she said. "I thought an electric pole had come down on the house, and we had been electrocuted."
When she realized Woody was hitting her, she was so stunned she couldn't scream at first. When she finally did, her husband came into the room. Woody wrestled his father to the ground.
The mother called a daughter, who called the sheriff's office. When the mother told Woody that deputies were on the way, he stopped scuffling with his father.
"My husband said: `What on earth has happened to you? What's wrong with you?' " the mother said. "Victor was just shaking at that point."
The attorney asked Woody's father, "Do you think Victor needs some help?"
The father replied, "Anybody that would do that, there would have to be something wrong with them."
by CNB