Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 14, 1995 TAG: 9502140110
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
``Turn the ... camera off!'' Tammy Jane Weller swore at a Washington, D.C., camera crew working for the program as she was being escorted into in Wythe County General District Court by Capt. Betty Vaught of the Wythe County Sheriff's Office.
Weller had escaped from a Nevada penitentiary where she was serving time for shooting a boyfriend in the head in a Las Vegas parking lot, leaving him partly incapacitated.
Vaught and Sgt. Jeff Ratliff warned Weller about using abusive language in public. Weller murmured something indicating that she was not too concerned about whatever added penalty she might get for that, considering what she already faces.
The two-man camera crew beat her inside, where she was greeted by ``America's Most Wanted'' correspondent Kate Sullivan.
``Hi, Tammy,'' Sullivan said.
Weller asked who the camera crew was with. She seemed somewhat mollified at learning they were shooting for the TV program.
Ivey Van Allen, a spokeswoman for the show, said the follow-up on Weller's capture and the footage in Wytheville would be aired Saturday.
Weller's story was on the program last Saturday, one day before she was captured at the Petro Truck Stop by Virginia State Police.
The truck stop is in the eastern part of Wythe County on Interstate 81-77, three miles from Virginia State Police 4th Division headquarters, so law enforcement authorities did not have to travel far to make the arrest. Acting on an anonymous tip that Weller was headed to Wytheville, they took her into custody without incident as she was making a call at a pay telephone.
When brought before General District Judge Danny Bird, Weller asked if it was likely that she would be returned to Nevada fairly quickly if she waived extradition proceedings. Bird explained that Nevada authorities would have up to 30 days to pick her up but that it normally happens in 24 to 48 hours.
``OK, I waive it,'' she said. If the Nevada officials should fail to pick her up within the 30 days, she asked, did that mean she would have to be released. No, Bird said, the time limit could be extended on request.
Bird told her that he would dismiss the felony fugitive warrant against her in Virginia if she was picked up by Friday.
Sullivan and the TV crew had a private interview with Weller before she was returned to the Wythe County jail.
Someone mentioned to Sullivan how quickly the apprehension followed the TV show. ``It's pretty effective,'' Sullivan said.
Wythe County also figured in an ``America's Most Wanted'' segment in 1990. That one involved bigamist Frank Van Dyke Hobbs. Charged in Wythe County in 1984 with having married three women in Virginia, he jumped bail and was caught and escaped several times in different states before turning up on the TV show.
He had married again in Texas two weeks before the segment was broadcast. His new sister-in-law recognized his picture and notified authorities.
He was returned to Wythe County in 1991 and given a suspended four-year sentence. He already had been in jail a year awaiting trial.
by CNB