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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 7, 1995                   TAG: 9502070053
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SUSPECT IN NEW YEAR SLAYINGS INDICTED

An alcoholic house painter who told Roanoke police he went back to drinking on New Year's Eve, hours before killing five people in a drunken blur, was indicted Monday on charges of capital and first-degree murder.

Robert Michael May was named in an 11-count indictment that charges him with committing the worst multiple murder in recent Roanoke history.

May, 27, is accused of shooting three men and two women with whom he was partying in an Old Southwest carriage house.

In a statement to police, May said he fired in self-defense after his efforts to stop an argument about the Navy and the Marines led one of the revelers to pull a gun on him.

The indictments returned Monday by a grand jury in Roanoke Circuit Court allege that May committed capital murder by killing Susan Lynn Hutchinson, 44, ``and/or'' the other four victims.

Four first-degree murder counts charge May with killing the others: Dale J. Arnold, 36; Cynthia LaPrade, 43; Carl Stroop, 42; and Daniel Mason, 47. The grand jury also charged May with five counts of using a firearm in the killings and one count of possessing a handgun as a convicted felon.

Hutchinson and Arnold shared the small apartment on 41/2 Street Southwest where the shooting happened about three hours into the New Year. Stroop, LaPrade and Mason were visiting from their nearby Mountain Avenue apartment.

May was charged with capital murder because he is accused of killing more than one person in a single act, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom.

He is believed to be the first person in Virginia to be charged with a murder that happened in 1995 - exposing him to harsher punishment under parole-reform laws that took effect at midnight Jan. 1.

That may become a moot point if prosecutors seek the death penalty, a decision that Branscom said has not been made.

The minimum sentence a jury could impose for the 11 charges is life plus 103 years. Under the old system, someone receiving such a sentence would be eligible for parole after serving about 22 years; if convicted under the new rules, May likely would serve much more time than that, Branscom said.

Keywords:
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by CNB