Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504140029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG LENGTH: Medium
Adam Blackwell, a 32-year-old construction worker from Waynesboro, was found guilty of using arson to intimidate Lorie Jean Strother because of her race.
Blackwell was found innocent of civil rights conspiracy charges, and co-defendant Stanley E. Smith, 20, was found innocent of the arson and conspiracy charges in U.S. District Court.
Blackwell's attorney, Terry Armentrout, said he won't know the sentencing range until the government submits a pre-sentencing report.
Strother told jurors the fire that scarred the outside of the shed was part of a pattern of racial harassment that began after she moved into the neighborhood with her three children.
People broke her windshield, banged on her door at night while yelling racial epithets and left a doll on her front steps that was painted black and had the legs torn off, she testified.
After no state charges were filed, Strother remained in the house she owns and began writing members of Congress, the governor and other government officials to draw attention to her situation. More than two years after the crime, federal charges were filed.
``On July 4, 1992, the American dream for Lorie Strother ... turned into a nightmare,'' Jessica Ginsberg of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division told jurors.
The arson occurred after a day of drinking and fireworks at Blackwell's trailer and his brother's trailer.
Waynesboro Fire Department Capt. Kenneth Wayne Cole said when he arrived at Strother's house at 11:57 p.m., he heard someone shout, ``burn nigger, burn'' and then heard laughter. He went to the shed to put out the fire and did not see who shouted the racial slur.
Walter Coffman Sr. testified that the area where Blackwell was living used to be all white.
Coffman, Blackwell's stepfather until 1992, said Blackwell has always had a bad attitude toward blacks. ``It was `nigger this,' 'nigger that,' 'nigger the other,''' he said.
Coffman said Blackwell had previously told him he had thrown the mutilated, black-painted doll onto the steps of Strother's home.
Blackwell testified he is not prejudiced against blacks and, if so, only to three particular blacks who jumped him several years ago. ``It didn't turn me against every single one of them, just those three,'' he said.
He said he grew up using the term ``nigger'' and did not necessarily mean it as a racial slur. He said he used it more as a description.
Virginia State Trooper K.S. Downs, a former Waynesboro police officer, testified that when he questioned Blackwell, ``He said something like, `What do they expect when a black family moves to the neighborhood?' We had not said anything about blacks being involved.''
by CNB