Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 15, 1995 TAG: 9506150048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NEWPORT NEWS - A 13-year-old boy who wanted ``to see the action'' during a beating and robbery was convicted of murder Wednesday.
Alvin Graham was found guilty in Newport News Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of first-degree murder, attempted robbery and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Graham has testified that he witnessed the beating and then the fatal shooting of Erik L. Winslow, 27, on March 4 in a field.
The boy will be sentenced after he testifies against a friend he alleges pulled the trigger. Because of his age, Graham cannot be tried or sentenced as an adult. As a result, the maximum punishment under state law would be incarceration in a juvenile detention facility until he reaches his 21st birthday.
- Associated Press
Child support judgment is record
ALEXANDRIA - A federal judge Wednesday issued the largest-ever judgment under a 1992 law against a parent who failed to pay child support, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Lance Levenstein, 44, a former lawyer from Boynton Beach, Fla., pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $132,718 in back child support. He was convicted under a law that makes it a federal crime to fail to pay child support if more than $5,000 is owed and the parent lives in a different state from the child.
U.S. District Judge Thomas R. Jones Jr. also sentenced Levenstein to five years' supervised probation.
Levenstein was ordered to pay $1,250 a month in child support in 1989 by a Fairfax County court. His son is now 12 years old.
- Associated Press
Insurance company, church settle claim
LYNCHBURG - Court Street Baptist Church has reached an out-of-court settlement with Nationwide Insurance Co. over storm damage done two years ago to the church.
The settlement Tuesday came one day before the matter was to go to federal court.
John T. Cook, an attorney for Nationwide Insurance, said both sides had been working toward the settlement for some time, though both also were ready to go to trial.
Terms of the settlement were confidential, though damage to the church to be covered by insurance has been estimated at between $408,000 and $878,500.
Court Street Baptist is a 116-year-old church, an official Virginia Historic Landmark, and the home of the local civil rights movement.
The church's front wall and steeple were severely damaged in a June 1993 storm.
- Associated Press
Parolee dies of AIDS a week after release
RICHMOND - Former Virginia inmate Sharieck Bey has died a week after being paroled because his death from AIDS was imminent.
Bey, 31, left Powhatan Correctional Center's medical facility June 6. After a reunion at his sister's home, he was taken to Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, where he died Tuesday, sources told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Bey began serving a 10-year sentence in 1991 for possession of cocaine and aggravated sexual assault stemming from the fondling of a minor.
- Associated Press
Civil War park bill advances in House
WASHINGTON - The House Committee on Resources advanced a bill Wednesday that would create a Civil War Battlefield Park in the Shenandoah Valley.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Richmond, now goes to the full House of Representatives.
More than 12 battle sites would be encompassed by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic Park, including some from Thomas ``Stonewall'' Jackson's 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign.
``This legislation ... will protect some of the nation's most historic areas for future generations to see,'' said Rep. Frank R. Wolf, who backs the measure.
Land for the park would not be seized under the bill, Wolf said. Instead, land would be acquired by the government by donation or purchase, he said.
Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Charles Robb, D-Va., have introduced a similar bill in the Senate.
- Associated Press
Police may have found stolen statue
RICHMOND - Police were checking on a tip Wednesday that a statue of the Virgin Mary stolen from a school might have been found in Fairfax County.
Sister Charlotte Lange, principal at St. Gertrude High School, said she looked out of her convent window Sunday morning and noticed the statue was missing from its stone pedestal.
``It's disappointing that someone would do that,'' Sister Lange said. ``Not that you're ever shocked about anything anymore, but it's disappointing.''
Sister Lange said a detective told her a statue covered with blue paint was found in a back yard in Fairfax. She said the statue was white when it was stolen, but she could identify it.
- Associated Press
by CNB