Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505310088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Kevin Bradley May, 30, of Draper, was convicted of two counts of malicious wounding, one count of breaking and entering and six charges of impeding police.
The charges stemmed from a Dec. 15 incident that began when May's former girlfriend, Susan Jones, called police to report he was trespassing outside her Fourth Street apartment. May had been ordered to have no contact with Jones.
Officer John Goad was stabbed twice - once in the forearm and once in the back of the head - as he and other town officers tried to break through an outer door of the building housing Jones' apartment.
May was in the hallway between the outer door and the entrance to Jones' apartment, police said. Jones' call to police had grown more frantic as she described - and a dispatcher could hear - pounding at her door and a man making threats that someone was going to die.
Goad was stabbed when the outer door opened several inches and he scooted through. Goad testified that May clearly saw he was a police officer.
Jones, her son and a friend escaped from the apartment when police broke out a picture window. Seconds later, police said, Jones' door broke open and May came into the apartment.
The jury deliberated 2 1/2 hours before convicting May, struggling with legal definitions of malicious wounding and the more serious charge of attempted capital murder for which Commonwealth's Attorney Everett Shockley had pressed.
The jury set a 35-year sentence for breaking and entering with intent to commit malicious wounding and 15 years for each malicious wounding charge. May faced a maximum of life in prison for the break-in and 20 years for each malicious wounding.
The jury also found May guilty of six charges of impeding Goad and five other officers, sentencing him to 12 months in jail on each and imposing a $2,500 fine for the charge that involved Goad.
"That's so screwy" that more time can be imposed for a break-in than injuring someone, jury forewoman Tammy Johnson said after the trial.
"We split differences [on the sentencing] trying to be totally fair," she said.
Because May's crimes were committed before Jan. 1, he will be eligible for parole.
Goad had testified Friday that May clearly saw him - wearing a police uniform and a badge - before twice lashing out with the knife. Goad and other officers believe May was holding the door shut, ignoring officers' commands to come outside, while also kicking at Jones' apartment door a few feet away.
But May testified Jones had asked him to come to her apartment to fix a washing machine. He told the jury he never heard police calling out to him and thought the officers were friends of Jones' who were trying to get him in trouble and strip him of visitation with their 3-year-old son.
And he denied stabbing Goad, saying it was more likely the officer cut himself on broken screen-door glass.
May testified that, when he was outside the building moments later, he was repeatedly gassed with pepper spray. Because he couldn't see, he still didn't know it was police who were confronting him, he said.
The incident came to an end when a Pulaski County deputy knocked the knife from May's hand with a police baton, according to testimony. May testified he also was struck on the head, and popped out a partial dental plate to show how he lost five teeth during the incident. He said he planned to file a lawsuit.
Shockley called May's version of events "hogwash."
The break-in was a culmination of several months of threats and intimidation by May against his former girlfriend, who left him last September and went to court more than once seeking restraining orders against him, according to testimony.
May ignored the orders, Shockley said, much as he did the officers' commands that night.
""He was defiant to the end," Shockley said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***