Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 4, 1995 TAG: 9501040089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press|
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
The man accused of killing two abortion clinic workers in Massachusetts and shooting up a clinic in Virginia was held in isolation in a closely watched jail cell Tuesday as prosecutors tried to work out which state would get first crack at him.
Clad in blue jail coveralls and shackled at the ankles, John C. Salvi III appeared before Judge Reid M. Spencer and was ordered held without bail. He looked mostly at the ground and entered no plea to charges of shooting at an occupied building.
Later, he told his lawyer he had suffered nausea, diarrhea and blurred vision from food poisoning, perhaps from some tainted ham and grits he ate in the Norfolk jail.
The hearing was his first court appearance since his arrest Saturday on charges of firing 23 bullets into the glass double doors of an abortion clinic building in Norfolk. No one was injured.
The 22-year-old student hairdresser from Hampton, N.H., had been charged hours earlier with two counts of murder in the deaths of office workers Friday at two clinics in Brookline, Mass.
After the hearing, Salvi was returned to his cell in the city jail, where he is under constant watch by a guard, said jail spokesman George Schaefer.
Schaefer dismissed news reports that Salvi is considered a suicide risk. He said Salvi was under constant watch for fear that other inmates might try to hurt him.
Salvi's court-appointed attorney, Tazewell Hubard, refused to comment on any discussion with Salvi about the charges or his motive in coming to Norfolk.
Hubard met with Salvi for an hour after the hearing and described him as ``a very responsive, intelligent young man'' who appeared alert but was upset about being ill and alone. Salvi asked to be moved into the general inmate population. ``I just think he wants to be with people,'' Hubard said.
John Corrigan, an assistant prosecutor in Massachusetts, said authorities there were working to get Salvi back to Massachusetts. Corrigan attended the hearing in Norfolk.
Hubard said Salvi hadn't decided yet whether to fight extradition from Virginia.
Salvi could be returned to Massachusetts almost immediately under a federal fugitive warrant if Virginia drops its charges against him, said Mike Smithers, a federal prosecutor in Norfolk.
But Norfolk police spokesman Larry Hill said the shooting investigation in that city wasn't over and local authorities may want to question Salvi again.
Federal prosecutors in Boston said they were considering charging Salvi under a combination of laws punishable by the death penalty, which Massachusetts does not have.
Norfolk's Hillcrest Clinic, where Saturday's attack took place, reopened for business Tuesday with new glass panes. Several police cars and a paddy wagon kept a daylong vigil, and private guards were posted as usual in the lobby. Clinic officials wouldn't say whether any abortions were performed.
Neither Massachusetts clinic was open Tuesday, and officials there said they didn't know when they would reopen.
by CNB