Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 8, 1993 TAG: 9309080310
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Harry Buford, 37, had been scheduled to go on trial today for the Oct. 3, 1991, shooting death of David Matthew Tolson.
But under an agreement reached Tuesday in Roanoke Circuit Court, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and use of a firearm.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Nagel said prosecutors will ask that Buford receive no more than 15 years of a possible 22-year sentence as part of the agreement.
Tolson, 28, was shot three times in the head and once in the chest during an argument at an Elm Avenue home near the Wasena Bridge. Police found him bleeding on the sidewalk; he died in the hospital about three weeks later.
Buford has said that Tolson, who dated his sister, beat her severely.
After approaching Tolson in the house's back yard about the incident, Buford told authorities, he shot in self-defense because he believed Tolson was pulling a gun.
Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors would have challenged Buford's claim of self-defense by calling witnesses who saw the victim chased down a street before he was shot.
"Our position would be that, regardless of whether or not he believed he was acting in self-defense, whatever legal or factual justification he had evaporated when David Tolson turned to flee," Nagel said.
Buford is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 8.
John Lichtenstein, a Roanoke lawyer appointed to represent Buford after his first attorney withdrew from the case, said his client will receive credit for the time he has spent in jail awaiting trial.
Keywords:
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by CNB