Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502170040
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Short
Betty Joann Woolridge Parks, 42, was released Thursday after a bond hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. She had been held in the Pulaski County Jail since being charged last weekend with murdering Rickey Douglas Rakes, 38.
Parks was released after posting a $10,000 bond. A preliminary hearing has been set for April 6. She is being represented by Public Defender David Warburton.
Rakes was living with Parks at the River Bend Trailer Park in the New River section of the county. The Sheriff's Office was called to their home at about 10:15 p.m. Friday. When deputies arrived, they found Rakes suffering from numerous stab wounds. He was taken to Radford Community Hospital, where he died.
Sheriff Ralph Dobbins said Saturday that Parks told deputies Rakes started to beat her, and she picked up a knife from the kitchen and stabbed him.
Other people in the trailer that night have said Rakes was lying down in a back bedroom when Parks went back to awaken him and the incident occurred, Dobbins said.
by CNB