Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502200035
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Early Jan. 15, Kenneth A. Basham is fatally stabbed seven times with a butcher knife in Northwest Roanoke. His brother, Victor Basham, is charged with the killing. The siblings had been drinking and arguing.
On Feb. 11, Geneva Weatherford is found beaten in the head with a metal cane. Her body is discovered on the floor of her Northwest home, trash strewn over her. Police arrest her grandson, Kenny Morris, and charge him with murder.
|n n| In the first seven weeks of 1995, Roanoke recorded more slayings than all of last year. In each case, a friend or relative of the victim is accused.
``You can't do much to prevent murders,'' Roanoke Maj. J.L. Viar said. ``You have to go deeper than the number of murders; you have to look at the types of murders you're getting.''
Statistics can be misleading, and none more so than homicide figures. But murders receive attention; and as those numbers mount, the community perceives that crime is increasing, Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said.
``But that may not be the case,'' he added. ``Most of the crimes committed in Roanoke touch a small portion of the city.''
Over the past decade, Roanoke has averaged about 14 murders a year. In 1994, the city had only four slayings, the lowest number in almost three decades. That number reflected a three-year decline in serious crime in the city - rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and motor-vehicle theft. And that trend appears to be continuing, Caldwell said.
Homicides are such a small percentage of the overall crime in the Roanoke Valley that any increase can skew the statistics, Roanoke County Police Chief John Cease said. His department investigated one murder last year. In that case a man was stabbed to death in his home. An acquaintance of the victim, who police believe was the killer, committed suicide several hours later.
``Out of 80,000 people in Roanoke County, the chances of being a homicide victim are slim,'' Cease said. ``A lot of our neighbors in Roanoke County measure crime by vandalism. To some, that will probably be the most serious crime they face.''
Over the past several years, situations where the killer and the victim know each other have made up the majority of slayings in the Roanoke Valley. That has remained true in 1995.
So far this year, Roanoke is the only jurisdiction in the valley that has had any slayings. In each case, an arrest was made within hours of discovery of the slaying.
Resolving a murder takes cooperation from each division of the department, Viar said.
Patrol officers are often the first to respond to a scene - what they see and hear can become the foundation of an emerging case. Officers in the records division gather background information on the suspects and victims and determine whether police have responded to the crime scene before. Evidence technicians from the identification unit meticulously comb the crime scene.
The technicians' work is tedious and time-consuming. To see how integral the act of gathering physical evidence is to a case, just watch the O.J. Simpson trial.
``It's very stressful,'' Sgt. James Day said. ``You're in there, and you know the case could hinge on what you're doing. You don't want to do anything that may make you miss a piece of evidence.''
New technology - particularly DNA testing and computer-assisted fingerprinting - has enabled technicians to establish a stronger link between a suspect and a crime. Roanoke leads the state each month in the number of suspect identifications and arrest warrants issued from matches it makes on its computer fingerprinting system.
``Witnesses, victims, suspects can change their stories,'' Day said. ``But the physical evidence we collect never changes, and it doesn't lie.''
One of the leading factors in resolving slayings in 1994 and 1995 has been the domestic-related nature of the killings, Caldwell said. Stranger-related crimes are just harder to crack because there are usually better planned, he said.
That's why the armed robbery at the Wilmont convenience store the night of Feb. 9 is described by Caldwell as one of the most terrifying crimes this year.
``There's no apparent reason for it,'' Caldwell said. ``Crimes like that send a chill down my back.''
The shooting happened just before John Hartsel closed his store. It was about 9:47 p.m. when two men wearing ski masks walked into the shop at Shenandoah and 36th Street Northwest. First they robbed Hartsel. Then they opened fire.
The shooting lasted a matter of seconds. Hartsel was hit four times. He survived. The two men fled the store into a nearby neighborhood. They remain at large.
Keywords:
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by CNB