Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 11, 1994 TAG: 9401130019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Donta Bundick, 19, pleaded guilty in Pulaski County Circuit Court last October to a charge of unlawful wounding. Monday, Judge Dow Owens imposed a five-year prison sentence, then suspended it after giving credit for time served. Owens ordered Bundick to complete 250 hours of community service.
Two other men have been found guilty of more serious charges in the beating, which authorities believe happened because the trio mistakenly thought the teen-age boy was a police drug informant.
A Radford grand jury had handed down drug indictments a few days before the beating, including charges against one of the men accusing him of distributing cocaine.
The 15-year-old victim has testified that he was beaten with a baseball bat and threatened with a razor-knife in April after three men approached him on Baskerville Street.
The boy said he was taken into a trailer and later was struck with a bat and beaten. He sustained a broken nose and jaw and had to have laser surgery on an eye.
Bundick first told an investigator that he was present when the assault occurred but denied participating.
Later, he said he kneed the teen twice in the stomach and only carried the bat that was used in the attack.
``To this day, I really don't know what role [Bundick] played in the beating,'' Commonwealth's Attorney Everett Shockley said.
Shockley said that although Bundick's role may have been small, he failed to stop the assault and so he was a participant in the beating.
Wayne Sawyers, Bundick's attorney, asked Owens to consider Bundick's youth. Bundick was 18 at the time of the attack and has been in jail since April awaiting trial and sentencing.
by CNB