Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 12, 1994 TAG: 9407140067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LIBBY LEWIS LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
That apparently is just the beginning for Billy Joe Hampton, a 35-year-old career criminal.
Hampton pleaded guilty in Guilford Superior Court to abducting a 62-year-old Greensboro woman from a Wal-Mart parking lot last March.
Helen Wray escaped from her car before Hampton led police on a two-mile chase that ended in a multicar collision.
Virginia authorities plan to extradite Hampton soon on charges arising from an attack on a Pulaski County man who was robbed and pummeled with a claw hammer in November 1993.
At the time, Hampton was on parole from prison for murdering a 95-year-old woman in 1975.
Authorities believe the Pulaski County case - and the ensuing indictment by the local grand jury - prompted Hampton to flee to West Virginia, where he is accused of abducting a woman in a case strikingly similar to the kidnapping and carjacking in Greensboro 12 days later.
In that Feb.23 case, police say, Hampton abducted a woman at knife point outside a Wal-Mart in Beckley, W.Va., and drove her Subaru to a secluded spot.
Police say he then sexually assaulted her before forcing her out of the car and driving off. West Virginia authorities want to try Hampton for those crimes.
The next day, police say, Hampton returned to his home of Montgomery County to rob and assault the 81-year-old owner of a car garage that Hampton frequented.
Later that same day, police say, Hampton abducted a 77-year-old woman and stole her Oldsmobile at a Montgomery County rest stop off Interstate 81.
Hampton allegedly pushed the woman out of the car; she was not seriously injured. He also faces charges in those crimes.
by CNB