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

DATE: SUNDAY, July 10, 1994                   TAG: 9407100051
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                LENGTH: Short

JUDGE CERTIFIES CAPITAL CHARGE IN POLICE SLAYING

A judge has certified a capital murder charge against a man accused of killing a Newport News police officer during a traffic stop.

Larry Bland is one of three Peninsula police officers who have been killed this year. His assailant, if convicted, could be sent to the electric chair.

According to testimony presented Friday at a preliminary hearing, the gun used to kill the officer was bought May 12 by Vinston Wright for $40. He gave the gun to Maurice Boyd and asked him to hold it.

Before dawn on May 13, Boyd, 29, used the gun to shoot Bland, prosecutors said.

After hearing testimony in General District Court, Judge Joan B. Morris ruled there was enough evidence to send a charge of capital murder against Boyd to the grand jury.

Bland, 48, was shot in the head three times after pulling over a car in the early morning hours of May 13.

by CNB