Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 24, 1994 TAG: 9408240039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
John Steven Campbell, who had been charged with bigamy, was sentenced to six months in jail after a judge found him guilty of having an unlawful marriage, a lesser charge.
Campbell's two wives testified in Roanoke Circuit Court that neither knew of the other until shortly after Campbell married the second one Jan. 31.
His first wife said that Campbell, 23, left her and their two daughters at their Clifton Forge home and went looking for work in Roanoke last year, saying he would call for them when he found a job and a place to live.
"When did you next hear from Mr. Campbell?" Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wanda DeWease asked.
"Never," Linda Campbell replied.
While Linda Campbell was waiting to hear from her husband in January, he was drinking and shooting pool with his second wife-to-be in a Roanoke bar.
"I think he had maybe two redeyes [beer mixed with tomato juice] and that was it," Margaret Campbell testified. "I jokingly said we ought to get married. But he took me seriously, and it went from there."
They were married three days later, after having known each other less than two weeks.
Campbell had told Margaret Campbell that he was divorced, she testified. But she became suspicious after going through his papers and decided to write a letter to his first wife, asking if they were still married.
"Two days later she was at my mother's house, looking for me," Margaret Campbell said.
After contacting police, the women were led by Detective M.S. Rubeiz to a Roanoke courtroom where Campbell was appearing on an unrelated charge. Each woman identified him as her husband.
The women were so upset that prosecutors decided to file a felony bigamy charge - a charge that is rarely used in Roanoke.
But in reducing the charge to a misdemeanor of unlawful marriage, Judge Richard Pattisall said he was not convinced that Campbell acted feloniously. Pattisall allowed the restaurant cook, who already has served two months in jail, to remain free while he is screened for a work release program.
Campbell testified that it was all a big misunderstanding.
The only reason he married Margaret, he said, was to "tease" the estranged father of her unborn child and make him jealous enough to come back to her.
"That's all it was, just a little plot to get them together," he wrote in one of several letters to his first wife, asking for forgiveness.
Alcohol was also a factor in his second marriage, which was held between beers in the front yard of a Southeast Roanoke home, Campbell said. "We were all sitting around drinking and smoking weed. ... The only thing I can remember is the [minister] coming in and saying, 'Are ya'll ready to do this?'''
"I didn't take it seriously," he said.
Campbell's second marriage already has been declared invalid because of the circumstances; a divorce is pending in his first.
Margaret Campbell said she wasn't that upset when their brief marriage fell apart and Campbell went to live with two other young women.
"I thought it was funny," she said under cross-examination by Assistant Public Defender Marian Kelley. "If you knew the two girls, you would too."
by CNB