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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 11, 1993                   TAG: 9308110150
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INSANITY BLAMED IN ROBBERY

A man who was shot twice during a robbery at the Kroger store at Crossroads Mall in September was found innocent by reason of insanity Tuesday.

Randy Caine Hayes, 20, has suffered from schizophrenia off and on for about five years, testimony revealed. Roanoke Circuit Judge Roy B. Willett ordered that he continue to receive treatment for the mental illness.

On the night of Sept. 17, a few weeks after Hayes had taken a bus from his home in New York to Roanoke, voices inside his head started telling him to rob the store, he told authorities.

"He knew robbing a store was wrong, but he had no choice but to carry out a command from a higher power," said Dr. Henry O. Gwaltney, a clinical psychologist at Central State Hospital in Petersburg. Hayes has been receiving treatment there since the robbery.

Shortly after 8:30 p.m., Hayes entered the store carrying a nylon bag, said Roanoke Police Officer Barry Renick, who was moonlighting as a security guard.

"All at once he jumped across the service desk, started brandishing a gun, shouting, `Where's the money?' over and over," Renick said Tuesday.

After stealing $1,065 from a cash drawer, Hayes fled, but Renick shot him twice, in the torso and arm. Haynes dropped the money and a still-cocked gun and ran.

Renick caught him a few minutes later behind a movie theater.

Renick, a 20-year-veteran, was found to have acted justifiably during the robbery, the commonwealth's attorney said after a monthlong investigation.

A few days after the robbery, Hayes was taken from Roanoke Memorial Hospital to Central State. When he arrived, Gwaltney described him as "psychotic, hearing voices, seeing things that weren't there."

After receiving treatment, Hayes was determined competent to stand trial, Gwaltney said. But Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom did not contest the insanity plea. Hayes did not take the stand.

Doctors still are confused about how Hayes decided on Roanoke, where he has no relatives, as the place to start a new life.

"We still don't know why the voices told him to come to Roanoke," Gwaltney testified.

by CNB