Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At a preliminary hearing, General District Judge Julian Raney ruled there was probable cause to support a murder charge against 18-year-old Arthur Jermaine Manns of Roanoke. Raney certified the charge to a grand jury that will meet next month.
Manns admitted shooting Nichols, 31, of 14th Street Southeast, during an argument early May 14 at the Lincoln Terrace public housing development, Detective S.P. Lukacs testified.
Lukacs gave the following summary of a statement he said Manns made 12 hours after the shooting:
Manns became angry at Nichols after she made a racial comment to a bystander in the 1700 block of Dunbar Street Northwest. Manns is black; Nichols was white.
When Manns confronted Nichols - whom he did not know - she told him: "I wasn't saying s*** to you."
At that point, Manns told police, he got a handgun from his car as Nichols went inside an apartment. When she came out a few minutes later, Manns pulled the gun on her.
Nichols apologized, turned and began to walk away. Manns told Lukacs that he then fired two shots into the air and two more at Nichols. When police arrived, they found Nichols lying on her back on a sidewalk, Sgt. M.A. Lee testified.
She had been shot twice in the back, and died several hours later at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Police have said earlier that a crack cocaine transaction had just taken place in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, and that drug involvement was being considered in the investigation. But drugs were not mentioned in testimony Tuesday.
Manns is being held in the city jail in lieu of $100,000 bond.
Keywords:
ROMUR
by CNB