Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 13, 1994 TAG: 9407150034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bill asked in court Tuesday for a chance to get treatment for the drug and alcohol abuse that accompanies his downward spirals of depression.
``Alcohol is deadly for me,'' Bill said. ``I realize that I have a lot to live for now. Being in jail these last nine months, I realize I don't want to stay the rest of my life in jail.''
Judge Kenneth Trabue said Bill should get help - but he would have to start getting it in the penitentiary.
Bill, 25, showed up at his mother's house in Roanoke County on Oct. 16 with a bottle of liquor in his hand. Bill, despondent over the breakup of his marriage, pulled out a gun. His plan, Bill testified, was to kill himself in front of his mother.
His mom, Connie Sery, calmed him down and he left. But he returned a short time later and shot the lock off her bedroom door. She went out of a second-story window and fled to her daughter's house nearby.
When Bill followed, she went out a window again and crawled through a highway culvert under U.S. 220 and hid in a bush.
Meanwhile, Bill stood outside his sister's house, firing his gun into the air.
Officer M. Lee Linkous was called to the scene. His car was in the turnoff between the north- and southbound lanes of the highway when he heard a ping and felt something brush his leg. It was a bullet fired from Bill's gun. It had hit the bottom of the car door and fallen gently inside.
Prosecutor Skip Burkart said only luck prevented someone from getting killed during Bill's wild shooting. If the bullet fired at Linkous' squad car had been a little higher, Burkart said, Bill could have been in court facing the death penalty for killing a police officer.
Under a plea agreement reached this spring, a charge of attempted capital murder was dropped. Bill pleaded guilty to five other crimes, including shooting at an occupied vehicle and shooting in an occupied dwelling.
Family members testified that Bill is not a naturally violent man - but he gets suicidal and out of control after he's been drinking. A counselor testified that Bill was introduced to alcohol at age 7 and started smoking pot at 13. Bill uses drugs and alcohol to deal with the helplessness he feels because of an attention deficit disorder, the counselor said.
Since the shooting incident, Bill and his sister, Pamela Dillon, have gained joint custody of his 4-year-old son, Tyler. She has been taking Tyler to visit his dad every Tuesday at the Roanoke County Jail. Bill calls many nights to tell his son good night.
Before, Bill testified, he thought that his son was better off without him. But ``I realize now he needs me - and I need him too. He means a lot to me.''
by CNB