Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 14, 1995 TAG: 9507140059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
James Andrew Jones asked for a court-appointed attorney Thursday, and a hearing will be set in the next few days to determine whether he will be released on bond.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis called Jones a "heavy heroin user" who cannot be relied on to appear in court and said the government will oppose bond for him.
Jones is charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm and using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. While he was being sought on those charges, state police in Appomattox - unaware of the warrant for his arrest - pulled him over for a traffic violation Wednesday and said they found heroin in his car.
To be charged with being an armed career criminal, someone must have been convicted of three or more crimes of violence or of drug trafficking.
Jones told a Lynchburg police investigator that he shot Warren Lee Mutz on Sunday after taking a friend to buy crack from him, according to an affidavit from ATF Special Agent Don Harris.
The affidavit says Jones admitted shooting Mutz after Mutz and Jones' friend began fighting over the drug purchase. Jones denied, during a brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate Glen Conrad Thursday, that he did everything the affidavit said he did.
Police recovered a .357-magnum revolver near where Jones was stopped the night of the shooting.
Harris said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had been investigating Jones before the shooting.
by CNB