ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: SUNDAY, April 17, 1994                   TAG: 9404170072
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG                                LENGTH: Short


2 TEENS CONVICTED IN FIRST-DEGREE MURDER OF WOMAN

A jury on Friday convicted a 14-year-old girl and her younger sister's boyfriend of stabbing her mother to death the night before the girls were to be sent to military school.

The seven men and five women on the Rockingham County Circuit Court jury deliberated three hours before finding Camellia Fries and Shawn Roadcap, 15, guilty of first-degree murder.

Camellia Fries had denied she killed Marilyn Fries, a 35-year-old divorced nurse, and blamed the killing on Roadcap. The boy had told investigators he helped hold Marilyn Fries while Camellia Fries repeatedly stabbed her mother with an 8-inch knife.

Rockingham County Circuit Judge Dennis Hupp said he will sentence the children May 4 after a juvenile probation officer reviews their mental conditions.

The maximum punishment would place the teens in the custody of the Department of Youth and Family Services until their 21st birthdays. But Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney G. Russell Stone Jr. said they likely will spend no more than two years in a juvenile learning center.

In December, Roadcap, Camellia Fries and Stephanie Fries all were convicted of first-degree murder by a Rockingham County juvenile court judge.

All three appealed their convictions to Circuit Court. Stephanie Fries will be tried separately on April 25.


Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.

by CNB