
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 17, 1995                   TAG: 9506200075
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

MURDERER DENIES TRY AT SUICIDE

Convicted killer Christopher Goins told authorities Friday he was not attempting suicide when he overdosed on six pills given to him by other inmates at the city jail.

Goins, who was convicted Tuesday in the October slayings of two adults and three children at a Richmond apartment, was transferred to the Mecklenburg Correctional Center in Boydton on Friday. He had been treated at the Medical College of Virginia Hospital after becoming ill in his cell Thursday.

Warden J.D. Netherland said Goins will be held on death row at the maximum-security prison while awaiting a sentencing hearing set for July 18. No special security was planned for Goins, the warden said.

``We're not going to treat him any differently than anyone else,'' Netherland said. Fifty-six inmates are awaiting execution in the prison's death row.

Sheriff's investigator Lt. A.E. Roehm declined to identify the pills or comment on how the other inmates had obtained them. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that the pills were the drug thioridazine hydrochloride, sold under the trade name Mellaril. It is used to treat tension, depression and anxiety and isn't toxic except in extremely large doses.

News reports had quoted unnamed sources who believed Goins had made a suicide attempt or had hatched an escape plan that would begin with his transfer to a hospital. His aunt told reporters that he had overdosed on asthma medication. However, Goins told Roehm that he had taken the pills merely to help him sleep.

Two inmates gave Goins the pills last week, Roehm said, and he hid them in a container of baby powder. When he was unable to sleep, he swallowed two pills and later took two more and then two more after that, the investigator said. A deputy sheriff noticed that Goins appeared to be groggy in his cell.

Authorities believe Goins' assertion that he had not attempted to take his own life, Roehm said. ``Mr. Goins was being straightforward, I believe, during the interview,'' he said. ``I didn't have to pry anything out of him.''

by CNB