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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 13, 1994                   TAG: 9404130027
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT                                LENGTH: Medium

RULING POSTPONED IN SHOOTING

Circuit Court Judge William Alexander II delayed ruling Tuesday on shooting charges involving a former Ferrum College basketball player and another man involved in a dispute at the college.

Alexander took a ruling under advisement on the cases of Sean E. Conyers, 21, and Tiwan M. Dillard, 18, until background reports are completed for a hearing to be set in late May.

The two men are accused of firing weapons when a Jan. 22 argument outside the Ferrum dormitory where Conyers lived at the time escalated.

Conyers, Ferrum's former starting center, pleaded not guilty to a charge of shooting into an occupied vehicle, and Dillard pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawfully shooting at an occupied dwelling.

Investigator Kevin Cook of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department testified that Conyers used a pistol to shoot at the car in several places and broke out the windshield. He found two shell casings in the parking lot.

However, Alexander withheld a decision at the request of William Davis, Conyer's lawyer. Davis said that the men with whom Conyers was arguing were trying to provoke an altercation and had no business on the campus around 2 a.m. because they were not students at the college.

Apparently, the two men had been arguing earlier in the evening. Then, a witness testified at an earlier hearing, Dillard later returned to the campus.

"During the first altercation, Conyers was in his room," Davis said. "The second time, people came back looking for trouble because of the first altercation."

Regarding Dillard's case, Scott testified that Dillard admitted firing shots toward the building because he was being shot at earlier.

by CNB