Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9507030087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
The inmate's parents claimed that the beating was in retaliation for their son's cooperation in the investigation of a handgun found in a typewriter used by executed killer Willie Lloyd Turner.
The inmate, Michael Stokes, suffered a concussion and wounds requiring 32 stitches June 20 when another inmate ripped the lid from a footlocker and beat him with it, his parents said.
Stokes, 35, is serving 73 years and six months for an armed robbery in Prince William County. He was one of 15 men who were housed with Turner on a protective custody tier at the prison.
Stokes has been in protective custody for 10 years, ever since witnessing a murder in the now-closed Spring Street prison in Richmond, his parents said. Anthony Reynolds, the inmate alleged to have beaten Stokes, is serving four years and eight months on a grand larceny charge out of Arlington.
Citing its investigation, the department refused to release any information about Reynolds or to allow Stokes to be interviewed.
Larry Stokes, who lives in Tampa, Fla., said his son told him of the beating two days after it occurred. He said his son claims guards did nothing as Reynolds beat him.
``He said the officers told him he should not have talked to the state police because they did not want nobody to know that this inmate had this gun,'' the elder Stokes said. ``They told him he would pay for it.''
The corrections department's internal affairs division began an investigation into the beating after learning about it Friday from the state police, corrections spokesman Jim Jones said.
The internal affairs unit also investigated the discovery, less than two hours after Turner's execution May 25, of the gun in his typewriter. The probe ended after 36 hours, with Corrections Director Ronald Angelone speculating that the incident was a hoax concocted by Turner's lawyer.
After protests from legislators and others who questioned the effectiveness and propriety of the Department of Corrections investigating itself, Gov. George Allen ordered the state police to conduct a second inquiry into the gun incident.
State police investigators first learned of Stokes when Turner's lawyer, Walter Walvick of Washington, forwarded a letter to them in which Stokes indicated that he knew something about Turner's gun.
Friday's contact between the two agencies raises questions about the independence of the state police probe, said Kent Willis, director of the Virginia ACLU.
Bill Cimino, a spokesman for Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore, said internal affairs investigators routinely handle incidents involving inmates at institutions.
by CNB