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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 24, 1995                   TAG: 9503240132
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AS A THIEF, HE'S A BIT UNPOLISHED

It was Eric P. Wilson's shiny shoes that did him in.

Wilson, who sometimes polishes his shoes two or three times a day, was convicted Wednesday after evidence showed he paused during a burglary long enough to shine his shoes - leaving his can of shoe polish and a personalized rag behind.

The evidence, which Constance Hudson found on the living room floor after her Southwest Roanoke home was broken into, did to Wilson what Marcia Clark hopes the bloody glove will do to O.J. Simpson.

"If the shoe fits, wear it," said Roanoke Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom.

Branscom had argued that, in order to break into Hudson's Tillett Road home last November, Wilson had to climb "up and over the back porch, creating a great probability of shoe damage." Once Wilson was inside, the prosecutor reasoned, he noticed some scuff marks on his shoes and couldn't resist pulling out his ever-present shoe polish and a rag that bore the initials E.W.

By leaving the polish and rag behind, Wilson, of Washington Avenue in Southwest Roanoke, "left his fingerprints" at the crime scene before fleeing with about $5,000 worth of jewelry, Branscom said.

Roanoke Circuit Judge Robert P. Doherty convicted Wilson, 40, of breaking and entering and grand larceny.

Wilson denied the charges. He maintained that Hudson, with whom he was acquainted, had invited him into her home - and that, yes, he probably did polish his shoes while he was there.

"You almost have a fetish about your shoes, don't you?" Assistant Public Defender William Fitzpatrick asked his client.

"Yes, I do," Wilson replied, explaining that it probably had something to do with his days in the military.

So perhaps it was no surprise that when Wilson stepped up to the witness stand, he was wearing a pair of brown boots that had been polished to a perfect shine.

"They were immaculate," Fitzpatrick said. "They were just beautiful."

by CNB