Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090049
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But Thursday, she told a Montgomery County Domestic Court judge the whole matter was a misunderstanding that grew out of an argument the two had after drinking for several hours.
Her boyfriend, Dale Wayne Alderman, was not shooting at her but at a groundhog, Tina Deason said. She testified she was afraid of guns and when Alderman left their trailer on Brush Creek Road in Pilot, she ran the other way to get away from the rifle.
Since the incident, she and Alderman have moved back in together and she said she is not afraid of him.
But on a tape of her 911 call to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office played for Judge Patrick Graybeal, Deason sounded terrified as she ran from the trailer to a neighbor's house and talked via cordless telephone to a dispatcher as she hid from Alderman.
She cried as she told the dispatcher Alderman had pointed a gun at her and shot at her.
Deason testified that because she had been drinking heavily, she recalled little of her conversation with the dispatcher or a deputy sheriff when he arrived.
"I'm not a drinker. I had too much to drink that day," she testified, adding it was "all a big misunderstanding."
Graybeal apparently put more weight to what Deason said on the 911 tape than what she testified to Thursday.
He sent charges of attempted murder and use of a firearm against Alderman on to a grand jury to consider for indictment.
Peggy Frank, assistant commonwealth's attorney, dropped a misdemeanor property destruction charge. Deputies charged Alderman with that offense because they said he damaged a patrol car door when he kicked it while inside the car. Frank said the Sheriff's Office could assign no monetary amount to the damage and had apparently made any needed repairs.
Graybeal also sent to the grand jury a felony charge of secreting a weapon inside the jail.
A jailer testified he saw Alderman remove a pocket knife from a sneaker while being kept in a holding cell.
Alderman, 32, did not offer any evidence at Thursday's preliminary hearing. He is free on $20,000 bond.
Deputy Jerry Turpin testified Alderman walked toward his patrol car when he arrived and denied firing the gun.
A unloaded rifle was found on the hood of his vehicle, but deputies also found two shell casings nearby.
by CNB