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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 20, 1995                   TAG: 9501200079
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SARAH HUNTLEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DRIVE-BY SHOOTER SENTENCED

A Roanoke County Circuit judge sentenced the last of four people involved in the Wildwood Road drive-by shooting last February to three years in prison, suspended after 30 days in jail.

Anthony H. Fesperman II, 20, of the 400 block of Mount Vernon Avenue in Salem, pleaded guilty to one count of shooting at an occupied dwelling.

Fesperman, his cousin, Shawn Long, and two juveniles were charged after detectives linked them to a joy ride Feb.10 that ended with 17 random shots being fired into two houses and a trailer on Wildwood Road. The residents were home at the time, but no one was injured.

Fesperman told Judge Jack Coulter he didn't know that Long had a gun when he got into the car, and that he fired the weapon only once into the woods. He crouched down on the floorboard in the front seat, he said, and told the others to stop as they sped down Wildwood Road, spraying bullets.

Fesperman's attorney asked Coulter to consider community service, but the judge refused, saying, "The seriousness of this offense requires that the punishment be significant in order to strike home."

In addition to his 30-day jail time, Fesperman was sentenced to two years' probation and must pay $992.30 in restitution, one-fourth of the nearly $4,000 in damages to the homes.

by CNB