Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506230074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Robert M. May keeps changing the story of how he killed five people during a New Year's party, Roanoke prosecutors say, and they plan to subpoena the videotape of a television interview in which he gave his latest version.
In a telephone interview with WDBJ (Channel 7) that aired this week, May essentially stuck to what he has told police - that he shot five people in self-defense at an Old Southwest carriage house.
But May added new details and offered others that conflicted with what he has said earlier, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom said.
``There are a number of differences in what he told police and what he said in the interview,'' Branscom said.
Prosecutors plan to subpoena the tape - and possibly reporter Kim Wheeler, who received May's call from the Roanoke City Jail - to use in his capital murder trial, scheduled to begin July 31.
Because May, 27, has given ``five or six versions of what happened,'' Branscom said, his conflicting statements could be used to undermine his testimony.
While defending his actions in the deaths of the three men as self-defense, May said in the interview that ``maybe'' he deserves the death penalty for killing the women.
``When it comes to the men, I don't feel I should spend one day in jail, honestly,'' he said. ``But for the women, maybe I deserve it. That's a tough call. I did take lives and maybe, maybe it justifies mine being taken as well.''
May has told police that he shot Carl Stroop, 42, Dale Arnold, 36, and Daniel Mason, 47, after one of the men pulled a gun on him during a drunken argument about which branch of the military, the Navy or the Marines, was tougher.
But May has given several different accounts of how Susan Hutchinson, 44, and Cynthia LaPrade, 43, were killed in the upstairs apartment of the carriage house on 41/2 Street Southwest.
May first told police he was in a drunken haze when he killed the screaming women, just seconds after shooting the men. He later changed his statement to say he left the apartment, then returned seconds later and shot the women because they were witnesses.
In the television interview, May gave a third version - that he shot one woman after she made threats against his family. He said he could not remember killing the other.
May also added details that have not been included in statements he has made to police and other sources.
Although prosecutors plan to use the conflicting statements to challenge May's possible self-defense plea, it remains unclear if the case will come to trial.
May reportedly is considering pleading guilty, although a hearing scheduled for him to enter a plea was postponed earlier this month.
Prosecutors are not willing to reduce the capital murder charge in exchange for a guilty plea, and Branscom has said the commonwealth has ``good evidence to support a sentence of death.''
If May were to plead guilty, Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein would decide whether May should receive a life sentence or the death penalty.
No one has been executed for a crime committed in Roanoke since capital punishment was reinstated in Virginia in 1977.
May, an alcoholic house painter, lived next door to Arnold and Hutchinson's apartment.
Police were called to the apartment about 3 a.m. Jan. 1 by a neighbor who heard gunshots. Officers found the three men lying in the kitchen floor with gunshot wounds to their heads.
In the adjacent living room, the bodies of Hutchinson and LaPrade were found seated on a sofa - one of them with her legs still crossed. Each had been shot in the head.
May fled the scene, waded across the Roanoke River and eventually ended up at his father's home. He was arrested there about 3 p.m. and admitted to police in a taped statement that he killed all five people in self-defense.
Although May has said one of the men pulled a gun on him, authorities dispute that claim and say there has been no evidence of a second weapon used in the incident.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Keywords:
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by CNB