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

DATE: TUESDAY, December 20, 1994                   TAG: 9412210054
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SIX MILE POST                                LENGTH: Medium

CONTRADICTIONS MUDDLE CASE

Why did a suspect in a bizarre slaying call 911 to report it hours after it happened? And why was the body stuffed in the trunk of a car when the suspect claimed the killing was in self-defense?

Those were two of several questions Franklin County investigators were trying to answer Monday.

Deputies responded to the 911 call Saturday afternoon. They arrived at a Callaway-area home to find a man's body stuffed in the trunk of his car and his dog peering at them from the back seat. The victim was identified as Harold Douglas Coon, 56.

Minutes later, according to Capt. Bill Overton, the man who made the 911 call, Lawrence V. "Larry" Armijo, was arrested at the home owned by Coon on Virginia 736.

Armijo, 28, had been staying at the house for a short time, Overton said, and investigators believe he rented a room there.

Sheriff W.Q. Overton said Armijo called 911 around noon Saturday, calmly identified himself and said that he had stabbed someone in self-defense. Armijo even spelled his last name for the dispatcher, and said he would wait for deputies to arrive.

The sheriff said investigators quickly realized that Coon was killed as many as nine hours before Armijo made the phone call.

Coon's body had been moved from the house - where investigators found a large amount of blood on a couch - to the trunk of his car after the slaying, W.Q. Overton said.

Investigators believe Coon's killer put the victim's dog in the back seat of the car, where the dog was found unharmed by deputies.

Results of an autopsy conducted Monday revealed that Coon was stabbed fatally in the neck and several more times in other areas of his body, Bill Overton said. The autopsy also revealed signs of a struggle before the stabbing.

Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood, who inspected the crime scene Saturday, said: "Right now there's a couple of scenarios that point to capital murder and a couple that point to self-defense."

Bill Overton said Armijo was separated from his wife and was living with a relative in Franklin County as recently as Thanksgiving.

Armijo was arraigned Monday on a murder charge in Coon's killing. A bond hearing is set for Wednesday morning, and a preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 8.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB