Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 6, 1995 TAG: 9506060106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Two white hunting buddies who shot at a black motorist while chasing him along a forest road in April 1994, were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.
Carlos Bishop of Roanoke, the passenger, did the actual shooting but then cooperated with investigators. He pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced Monday to 25 months in prison.
The driver, 33-year-old Lewis Terry of Roanoke, was found guilty at a March trial. He was sentenced Monday to 62 months.
Both must pay $2,870 in restitution to Raymond Ellis, 23, whose truck they shot up.
Ellis, a Virginia Tech student, was on his way to a mountain-bike race course in the forest when he passed Bishop and Ellis' car on narrow Wildlife Road in Craig County. When he waved to them and they realized he was black, they gave chase.
Bishop, 25, testified in March that, when Ellis passed them, Terry said, "Let's kill that son-of-a-bnigger."
"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 denied using the racial slur or telling Bishop to shoot Ellis.
Bishop said he can't remember everything, but recalled that Terry passed Ellis at least once and turned the car around so Bishop, sitting in the open window, could continue firing at Ellis. Others in the forest also came under fire during the shootout, but no one was injured.
Monday, Bishop apologized to U.S. District Judge James Turk.
"I never done nothing like this in my life," he said. "I don't know why, to be honest with you."
Alcohol, not race, was a key factor in the incident, Bishop's attorney said. Bishop has two drunken-driving convictions on his record; Terry has four, as well as two convictions for driving after being classified a habitual offender.
Terry was found guilty of malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle and use of a firearm in a violent crime; Bishop pleaded guilty to the same two charges. The pair's sentences differed because Terry had a longer criminal history and Bishop got credit for taking responsibility for his crime and helping the government.
Turk dismissed the firearm charge against each man. He ruled that sentencing them on that charge - which carries a mandatory five-year term - amounted to double jeopardy, or punishing them twice.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis said the government will consider appealing. He argued that the firearm violation was created especially to be added on to the sentences of violent criminals and was not double jeopardy.
by CNB