Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 4, 1994 TAG: 9406060144
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: |By RON BROWN| |STAFF WRITER|
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Savino, sentenced to death in Bedford County in 1988 for the murder of Thos McWaters, was found unconscious in his prison cell at Mecklenberg Correctional Center just before 9 a.m. on May 26, said Ben Hawkins, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Savino was taken to Community Memorial Hospital in South Hill, were he was treated for an overdose and released.
Authorities found a syringe inside his cell.
Hawkins did not specify how large a dose of cocaine Savino, 34, had taken.
"Obviously, it was enough that it caused an overdose," he said.
Hawkins said Savino apparently was trying to commit suicide.
He said that corrections investigators were looking into all possible sources for the cocaine, including prison employees. He would not comment Friday on the status of the investigation.
Savino was kept in isolation after his return to Mecklenberg and was transferred to Greensville Correctional Center this week "for security reasons," Hawkins said.
No execution date has been set for Savino, whose death sentence is under appeal.
The discovery of the syringe in Savino's cell comes almost a year after Wayne Kenneth Delong, another death row inmate, injected cocaine and hanged himself. Delong was facing the electric chair for the 1986 shooting death of Richmond police Detective George R. Taylor.
Savino was sentenced to die after he testified that he beat 64-year-old McWaters with a hammer and stabbed him with two butcher knives while strung out on cocaine. Savino, who was on parole from New York at the time, said he had become tired of McWaters' repeated demands for sex.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB