Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 28, 1995 TAG: 9501300034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
Buchanan, 49, of Bluefield, W.Va., has pleaded not guilty to capital murder and likely will testify Monday.
Waddle's body was found in her burning home, where she lived alone in the Waddletown community of Bland County. She was 77. Authorities at first thought her death was an accident, but an autopsy showed she was killed by a knife wound to the throat. Police said robbery appeared to be the motive, with the fire set to cover the slaying. Police said items from the woman's home were found in the brothers' possession.
The trial has been moved to Giles County Circuit Court because of concerns about pretrial publicity.
William James ``Jim'' Buchanan, 59, was sentenced to two life terms after a Bland County jury convicted him in September of first-degree murder and robbery.
Prosecutors Mickey Newberry, Bland County's commonwealth's attorney, and Mike Doucette, special assistant prosecutor from Lynchburg, contend that Fred Buchanan killed Waddle but in his mind has transferred his guilt onto his brother. Jim Buchanan, who has emphysema, was physically incapable of committing some of the acts Fred Buchanan blamed him for, they said.
Defense attorneys Bobby Turk and Jimmy Turk, brothers from Radford, are arguing that Fred Buchanan - who they say has an IQ of 53 - set the fire only because he was afraid of his brother's threats.
T.S. Svard, a Virginia State Police special agent, testified that Fred Buchanan said his brother stuck a knife into the woman's neck, then sexually abused her.
Fred Buchanan told police he wanted to get help for Waddle, but his brother held a shotgun to his head, threatened to put him in a mental hospital and ordered him to set the fire, Svard testified.
Kenneth Davis, who shared a cell with Fred Buchanan at the Bland County Jail in January 1994, told the jury he once saw the man take a knife out from his bed and peel an apple. Davis testified Buchanan talked of escaping by getting a female jailer around the neck and using a knife to ``do her like the old lady.''
But the Turks argued that Davis told authorities that story to gain trusty status at the jail, affording him privileges such as a private cell with a television and five days' ``good time'' for every month he was a trusty. Good time reduces the amount of time an inmate serves. Davis was serving 10 years after he violated his parole for grand larceny and breaking and entering.
Davis denied he was rewarded because of coming forward with his information.
by CNB