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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994                   TAG: 9409010068
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

TEEN SENTENCED FOR BURNING BOY

A Montgomery County teen-ager was sentenced in Circuit Court on Wednesday for wounding a young boy by burning a pentagram into the boy's back.

Lee Evans May, who had just turned 18 when the offense happened last summer, told authorities he and another person were playing with the 11-year-old child when the burning accidentally happened. May had used a lighter to heat up a pentagram pendant and was swinging the necklace around. The 11-year-old boy was treated for a second-degree burn but was not hospitalized.

May says the child fell backward into the necklace when someone else let go of him.

But Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith said he doesn't buy that story. "This is behavior that is not appropriate. This act was done with the intent to injure," Keith said.

Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs found May guilty of unlawful wounding and imposed a three-year suspended prison sentence. Grubbs ordered May to complete 250 hours of community service within six months and placed him on probation for two years.

Police have said the burning was not occult-related.

by CNB