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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 9, 1995                   TAG: 9502090100
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MURDER CHARGE IS CERTIFIED IN LANDLORD'S DEATH

A man accused of killing his landlord told investigators he was defending himself after the man made sexual advances toward him, according to testimony Wednesday at a preliminary hearing in Franklin County General District Court.

Based almost solely on the testimony of Lt. C.D. Wagner of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, Judge G.A. Jones certified a charge of first-degree murder against Larry Armijo to the grand jury.

"There was nothing I didn't expect," said Armijo's attorney, Wayne Inge.

Wagner testified that Armijo, 28, confessed to beating Harold Coon, 56, in the head with a skillet and then stabbing him until he died in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood.

Wagner said Armijo told him he tried to escape out the kitchen door after Coon made sexual advances, but the door was locked, Hapgood said. That's when Armijo said he took up the skillet.

Armijo was arrested at Coon's home the afternoon of Dec. 17.

Around noon that day, a man called 911, identified himself as Larry Armijo, and said he had stabbed someone in self-defense, Franklin County Sheriff W.Q. Overton said at the time.

Sheriff's deputies responded to Coon's home on Virginia 736 in Callaway and found Coon's body in the trunk of a car.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB