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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995                   TAG: 9507190060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DANVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

DANVILLE WOMAN GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER

A woman was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the knifing of a Martinsville man after she took his payment for sex.

A Danville Circuit Court jury found Wendy Lavonne Walton, 29, guilty of the Aug. 1 slaying of James Calvin Gravely, 44.

Two women found Gravely's nude, bloody body outside his car on a dead-end street. One of the women testified she had seen Walton get into Gravely's car earlier that night.

On the witness stand Monday, Walton admitted taking Gravely's money for sex, but claimed he dropped her off at a convenience store and she didn't see him again.

But in a Feb. 7 statement, she told Danville police Detective R.D. Hairston that she stabbed Gravely in the neck and showed the officer the place of the wound.

- Associated Press

by CNB