Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503230059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Two Roanoke men celebrating a turkey kill with at least three 12-packs of beer and a shotgun decided a passing Virginia Tech student would make a good target.
So, on a spring evening last April, the pair chased Raymond Ellis along a woodland road in the Jefferson National Forest, firing a 12-gauge shotgun at him.
Carlos Bishop pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Roanoke last week to malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle and use of a firearm in a violent crime.
His partner, Lewis Terry, was found guilty of the same charges after a two-day trial last week.
The government called it a crime of racial violence but didn't press civil rights charges because Ellis didn't want the publicity, Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis said. Bishop and Terry are white; Ellis is black.
"We felt the simplest way ... was to treat it as it was - a shooting," Wolthuis said.
Even if the government had brought civil rights charges, the pair would not have received a stiffer penalty than the one they face. But civil rights attorney Deborah Sines from the U.S. Justice Department joined Wolthuis in trying the case.
The chase started as Terry, 33, was driving on the Wildlife Road in the Craig County portion of the national forest and slowed down to let Ellis pass on the narrow, dirt road.
Ellis, 23, an engineering student at Virginia Tech, was on his way to check out a mountain bike course.
It was the day before the annual Dragon's Back mountain bike race, and the area was busy with cyclists getting ready for the popular event.
Bishop testified that, when Ellis passed them, Terry said, "Let's kill that son of a bnigger." Terry denied using the racial slur.
"And when he did, I grabbed my gun out of the back, and I stuck it out the window and shot up in the air," Bishop said. "And, you know, it just seemed like the thing to do at the time."
Terry testified that he thought his passenger was only shooting into the air until he saw Ellis' truck swerve and Bishop said, "I'll get him."
Bishop, 25, had shot his first turkey with a new shotgun that morning, and the mood was festive. With a third friend - whom they had dropped off before they chased Ellis - they had drunk at least 36 beers, Bishop testified. "It was just hollering and stuff, you know. Just thought we was doing something great. It was sort of like celebrating, maybe."
Bishop said he remembers shooting at Ellis's truck three or four times. After that "it starts going blank. I went into a stupor, I reckon."
Ellis testified that the station wagon driven by Terry followed him, passed him and came back. All the while, Bishop sat on the door frame and fired his gun at Ellis' pickup. The pair followed Ellis for five miles on the narrow mountain road, driving 30 to 35 mph at times through dangerous curves and past other cars that pulled over for them.
"I got pretty nervous," Ellis testified. "I got angry at points, too, back and forth. I started getting really, really nervous at the end."
The driver of a car that got caught in the gunfire was beyond nervous.
Bland Painter III was taking his sons to the mountain bike race course and found his car under fire. He pulled into an open spot where a group was camping. Ellis followed. They were trying to get away from the shooting but realized they had boxed themselves in.
"Terror just spread through all of us," Painter testified. "We realized we were trapped in this single-lane road."
But Bishop and Terry left at that point and drove to Salem, where Terry, a habitual offender who was driving without a license, was arrested for drunken driving seven hours later. Witnesses to the shooting had reported the station wagon's license number to police, and Bishop later confessed.
Woody Lipps, a law enforcement officer for the national forest who investigated the incident, said that - while alcohol consumption in the forest is a problem - a crime such as this one is rare.
"Random violence between people who don't know each other at all is extremely rare," he said.
The defendants each face five-year minimum sentences on the firearms charges and additional time for the shooting charges. But Bishop pleaded guilty and testified against Terry, so he could get less than the minimum when they are sentenced June 5.
"Of all the cases I see - primarily drugs and violent crimes - this one is upsetting because of the vileness and senselessness and randomness of it," Wolthuis said.
The turkey Bishop shot, the one whose kill they were celebrating, never was eaten. It ended up rotting in Terry's basement.
by CNB