Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 4, 1994 TAG: 9401040084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Prosecutors obtained a murder indictment Monday against a Roanoke man accused of driving under the influence the night he caused a fatal accident on the Roy L. Webber Highway.
In most cases, motorists who cause deadly wrecks through drunken or grossly reckless driving are charged with involuntary manslaughter.
But in charging Michael L. Jacobs with murder, prosecutors will argue that his driving was an act of malice - the legal element required for a conviction of second-degree murder.
"We think there are situations in which a person can have malice without articulating a specific plan to kill," Chief Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony said.
"We just want the court to be able to have the latitude to make that decision."
If successful, the murder prosecution could subject Jacobs to one on the most severe penalties for an alcohol-related accident in the Roanoke Valley - up to 40 years in prison.
A grand jury that met Monday in Roanoke Circuit Court also indicted Jacobs, 23, on charges of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and driving drunk for the second time since 1991.
All three charges against Jacobs stem from an Oct. 16 accident that killed Brenda Jean Craighead Jones, 41, of Roanoke.
Jacobs' 1991 conviction of driving drunk in Roanoke County may play a key role in his murder prosecution. Part of his sentence for the DUI conviction was to attend classes, conducted by the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program, that stress the dangers of driving drunk.
Prosecutors are expected to argue that Jacobs' driving drunk amounted to malice because his classes had essentially given him prior warning.
By charging Jacobs with both murder and aggravated involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors are hoping to provide an option normally not available in such cases.
To prove an involuntary manslaughter charge, which carries up to 20 years in prison, there must be proof that the defendant acted with "willful and wanton disregard" for the life of others.
A second-degree murder charge, which carries up to 40 years in prison, requires proof that the defendant acted with malice, or a state of mind that leads to an intentional wrongdoing.
In other words, the difference between murder and manslaughter is malice.
Authorities have said earlier that Jones was killed when the car she was driving was struck head-on by Jacobs' car after it crossed the median strip and plowed into oncoming traffic.
According to a search warrant filed in Circuit Court, witnesses say that Jacobs had been playing in a band and drinking most of the night when he decided to drive home about 5:30 a.m.
One witness saw him drinking shortly before the crash, according to the search warrant, and two beer cans were found in his wrecked car.
The crash occurred just south of the Elm Avenue exit - within 100 feet of the site of another alcohol-related accident that claimed the lives of three people in May.
Authorities have said that Jacobs was in a southbound lane when his car veered to the right, struck a guardrail, then swerved across the median and into northbound traffic. Jones was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police used the search warrant to obtain samples of Jacobs' blood from Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where he was taken after the accident. The results of those blood-alcohol tests have not been released.
Jacobs, who was seriously injured in the crash and spent more than a month in the hospital, will be allowed to remain free on a $5,000 bond pending his trial.
Keywords:
ROMUR FATALITY
by CNB