Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 8, 1994 TAG: 9401080155
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Division Chief John Drew said Michael Hampton Sonner, 25, confessed to Nevada authorities and repeated his story this week to Texas authorities who traveled to interview Sonner.
Sonner contacted Nevada investigators late last month to say he wanted to talk about the robbery and murders that occurred Nov. 26 in Vega, Texas, on the New Mexico border, as he headed west in a stolen car following his Nov. 16 North Carolina jail escape, Drew said.
The victims were Pamela Jackson, 48, an employee at the Landergin Truck Stop, and Gregory Croswell, 35, of Eutaw, Ala., a customer.
In September, following a previous prison escape by Sonner, a Montgomery County woman identified him as the man who raped her in her home, stole her pickup truck and forced her at gunpoint to withdraw $1,000 from a Blacksburg bank. Sheriffs deputies said Sonner apparently did not know the woman but was familiar with her house and the general area.
Sonner is charged with rape, robbery, abduction and grand larceny in connection with the attack.
On Nov. 30, Nevada Trooper Carlos Borland, 25, was shot and killed after stopping a motorist just east of Lovelock. The trooper had chased the man after he failed to pay for gasoline at a service station.
Sonner said in a telephone interview with the Greensboro (N.C.) News and Record that he had shot Borland and wanted to die for it.
Drew said that because of Sonner's latest admissions, Nevada investigators "are going to seriously retrace his steps from the time he escaped. From what he told us, it's tough to believe he went from North Carolina to Texas without committing another crime."
Sonner faces a Feb. 2 preliminary hearing in Lovelock, Nev., on charges of murder, being an ex-felon in possession of a gun, possession of a stolen vehicle and resisting an officer.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB