Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 13, 1995 TAG: 9506130078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
NORFOLK - A man convicted of the capital murder and rape of a college student he had been dating sobbed and shouted his innocence as he was taken back to a jail cell Monday.
``I didn't do it,'' Derek R. Barnabei, his head newly shaved, pleaded while being escorted from Circuit Court. ``I'm innocent. I didn't kill that girl.''
A jury of eight women and four men, returning from a weekend break in deliberations that began last Thursday, took only 30 additional minutes to conclude that Barnabei was guilty of the 1993 slaying of Sara Wisnosky.
The jury will return today to hear additional evidence and decide whether Barnabei, 28, will get a sentence of life in prison or death.
The nude body of Wisnosky, a 17-year-old Old Dominion University freshman from Lynchburg, was found floating in the Lafayette River Sept. 22, 1993. She had been beaten and strangled.
- Associated Press
Loaded handgun found near prison
CHESAPEAKE - An officer walking ahead of a prison work detail outside the St. Bride's Correctional Center found a loaded handgun in grass about to be cut by the inmates.
It was the third incident in three weeks at a state prison involving a handgun, and at least the fifth such incident since early 1994.
The latest discovery, a .38-caliber gun, was made about 10:30 a.m. Friday at the 550-inmate facility in Chesapeake.
Department of Corrections spokesman Jim Jones said the inmate detail was cutting grass along a driveway that leads to the front of the prison. The officer found the gun about 215 feet outside the prison gates.
- Associated Press
Child accidentally shoots grandmother
FREDERICKSBURG - A Spotsylvania County woman was nearly killed when her 6-year-old grandson accidentally shot her in the head, police said.
The bullet traveled a short distance along her scalp, then ricocheted into a wall, police said.
``She was very, very lucky,'' Detective Mike Thompson of the Spotsylvania County sheriff's office said. ``If it had been a more direct blow, it more than likely would have killed her.''
The woman, whose name was not released by police because it might identify the child, was taken to Mary Washington Hospital. She was in stable condition Sunday night, Thompson said. Patient information can only be released with the patient's name, a hospital spokesperson said.
The shooting took place about 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the woman's home. The boy found a .22-caliber pistol, pointed it at his grandmother about 10 feet away and fired, police said.
The boy ran out the front door and told his grandfather, who called 911, police said.
Thompson said no charges are pending.
- Associated Press
Waynesboro's winds classified a tornado
CHARLOTTESVILLE - High winds that ripped through Waynesboro this weekend were the result of a tornado, the National Weather Service said.
The Saturday afternoon storm packed winds of 100 to 110 mph, considered a ``moderate'' twister, weather service officials said Monday. The storm caused $2 million in damage.
Weather service investigators visited the site Sunday to determine if the $2 million in damage was caused by straight-line winds or a tornado.
There were no injuries reported from the tornado.
- Associated Press
Residents want police officer fired
ALEXANDRIA - A police officer who has fatally shot two suspects in the past three years should be fired, even though investigations cleared him of wrongdoing, a coalition of city residents said.
Officer Scott Ogden was found blameless last week for the death of unarmed drug suspect Otis Kelley, who was shot at least 15 times during an arrest attempt in March.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and a variety of local activists bitterly criticized Ogden and other police at the time, complaining that race played a role in the white officer's action. Kelley, 34, was black.
In 1992, Ogden shot and killed another black man, 53-year-old Joseph Mobley.
Police Chief Charles Samarra and Commonwealth's Attorney John Kloch said last week that Ogden acted reasonably when he shot Kelley.
``We have two law enforcement officials who are out of touch,'' Alexandria NAACP President Emmitt H. Carlton responded. Carlton said Ogden should be fired quickly, instead of allowed to take a new job with the Police Department.
Samarra said a week ago that Ogden asked for and received a reassignment to a desk job. He had been on paid leave while the shooting was investigated by police and prosecutors.
Alexandria NAACP President Emmitt H. Carlton and other members of ``People Against Police Brutality'' said they will go before the City Council on Saturday to protest the Ogden case.
- Associated Press
Lawyers for Bottoms to continue fight
RICHMOND - Lawyers for Sharon L. Bottoms, a lesbian denied custody of her 3-year-old son, may try to take her case back to a local court instead of appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Virginia Supreme Court refused Friday to reconsider its April ruling that Bottoms should not have custody of Tyler Doustou. The court ruled the boy should stay in the custody of his maternal grandmother, Pamela Kay Bottoms.
``If the Supreme Court didn't make its ruling based on homosexuality, then every other reason cited doesn't exist anymore or has been remedied by time,'' said Player Michelsen, a lawyer helping represent Bottoms.
- Associated Press
by CNB