Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505220075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
The Virginia Parole Board paroled one of Julie Benica's four killers, James M. Wear, on Feb. 28 without notifying Benica in advance. Wear has since been reincarcerated, but Benica remains furious.
He wants an explanation, he said. He has a right to know what happened. He doesn't want it to happen again with any of the other killers.
Benica's lawyer, Stephen G. Test, has written to parole board Chairman John B. Metzger III asking for more information ``regarding the circumstances about Mr. Wear's parole.'' Test says Metzger called him and they spoke briefly, but he has received nothing in writing.
``They have never yet called [Benica],'' Test said. ``They have never apologized. They have never asked him how he feels. He has been ignored in this thing by everyone.''
Benica attended the trials, hearing how the four men robbed the motel where his wife worked as a night clerk and shot her in the head as she lay curled up and afraid on the floor. How they went to a restaurant for breakfast afterward and ordered French toast and eggs. How, after making sure she was dead, they went to their rooms and fell asleep.
He wants the men - Wear, Ronald D. Murray, Alfred D. Bastible and Robert E. Burd Jr. - to serve all of their sentences. Murray is serving two life terms plus 27 years, Bastible life plus 97 years, and Burd 32 years.
``They don't belong out,'' he said. ``They don't belong in society. Anyone who can murder someone and then go get a big breakfast and then come back and look at them ... I can't even put it into words,'' he said. ``It's not human.''
Benica said he signed papers in 1990 requesting notification each time one of the murderers becomes eligible for parole. Under state law, the board must notify victims who make such requests before releasing an offender.
Benica said he called the parole board in 1991 to make sure board members were aware of his strong feelings. On Feb. 15 of this year, he called again. He knew Wear would be eligible for parole this year, and he wanted to make an appointment with the board so he could object to Wear's release.
Benica talked to Rebecca W. Sirles, the board's director of victim services. She assured him Wear had been denied parole, he said, but made an appointment anyway for March 8.
The day before the appointment, Benica learned that Wear - who had served only 4 1/2 years of a 27-year sentence - had been paroled and, at the order of the parole board, rearrested.
Benica and his two brothers confronted Metzger in a conference room at the board's office in Richmond. He said Metzger told him Wear's release was a mistake - Wear's adult criminal record had not been entered into the board's computer. Benica had not been notified because the board did not have his telephone number.
At a hearing April 25 in Virginia Beach Circuit Court, parole board staff members gave testimony so confusing and contradictory that lawyers for both the board and Wear conceded that they ``might never find out what happened.''
Metzger said Friday he could not discuss the matter because legal issues concerning Wear have not yet been resolved.
by CNB