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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 5, 1995                   TAG: 9501050063
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SUFFOCATION KILLING

Herman White, who told police he suffocated a Roanoke County woman in a West Virginia graveyard because she asked him to, has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.

White, 44, of Bozoo, W.Va., had been scheduled to go on trial Wednesday in Boone County Circuit Court in Madison, W.Va., but the trial was called off after he pleaded guilty Tuesday.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, White received a recommendation of mercy from Judge E. Lee Schlaegel - meaning he could be eligible for parole from a life sentence in 15 years, according to his attorney.

White was arrested last year in connection with the July 27 death of Deborah Goodwin, a 41-year-old resident of the Willow Creek community in North Roanoke County. Goodwin was found suffocated in a rural cemetery outside Bald Knob, W.Va., about 50 miles south of Charleston.

White, who had been living with Goodwin for about three weeks before the killing, was arrested at another graveyard about 10 miles away. He told police that Goodwin said she wanted to die and begged him to kill her.

Tim Mayo, a Madison, W.Va., lawyer who represented White, said his client still stands by that account, but he realizes it was no excuse for his actions.

White did not testify at Tuesday's hearing but accepted responsibility for the killing and apologized in a short statement to the judge before he was sentenced.

"He cast blame on no one but himself," said Mayo.

Several days after Goodwin was reported missing from her home in August, West Virginia police found White sitting alone in Goodwin's car at the Hatfield Cemetery about 10 miles north of Bald Knob.

Police said at the time that White at first told them he did not know where Goodwin was. Authorities later found a suicide note from him in the car, along with a letter to Goodwin's family telling them where her body was.

White then told police that he suffocated Goodwin by pinching her nose between his fingers and holding his other hand over her mouth, authorities said at the time.

by CNB