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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995                   TAG: 9507280068
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD                                LENGTH: Medium

FLOYD COUNTY MURDER CASE IS SENT TO GRAND JURY

On the night her mother was killed, Michelle Ratcliff testified, she awoke to find Wesley Ray Sowers standing in the kitchen. In his right hand, he held a .44-caliber pistol; over his left shoulder hung a rifle.

"My mom was screaming, 'Please Wes, no' and he was just standing there."

Ratcliff's testimony Thursday was heard in Floyd County General District Court at a preliminary hearing for Sowers.

On April 1, police charged the 56-year-old Floyd man with murder. A few hours earlier, Vera Goad died from a gunshot wound as she pounded on a neighbor's door for help.

After an hour of testimony, Judge Ed Turner decided there was enough evidence to send the case to the grand jury.

Ratcliff testified first, speaking slowly and sobbing as she recounted the events of May 30.

That evening, Sowers and Goad had returned from a trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C. Goad had called another daughter, Debbie Radford, that night and said she ended the relationship with Sowers.

At about 9:30 p.m., Ratcliff said, she heard her mother screaming and saw Sowers holding the guns. Sowers looked at Ratcliff, and Goad ran out the back door.

"He ran out behind her and I ran out after him," she said.

Goad ran across the road to her neighbor's porch and began screaming for someone to let her in. Ratcliff said she jumped on Sowers' back to stop him from aiming his gun, but he threw her to the ground with his free arm.

"I looked up and my mom was screaming and he just looked at her," she said. "He pulled the trigger, and he shot her."

Ratcliff said Sowers then tried to shoot himself in the head, but missed. Then he walked across the front yard and out of sight.

During Ratcliff's testimony, Sowers stared into the distance and did not speak to his court appointed attorney, Terry Teel.

Assistant Medical Examiner William Masselo, who performed the autopsy on Goad, testified the first shot probably killed the 56-year-old woman. The bullet entered the left side and punctured the aorta, causing massive internal bleeding.

Floyd County Deputy Shannon Zeman was the first officer on the scene that night and investigated Goad's home for evidence. He testified that the front door, which had been locked, was forced open.

When he got to the scene, he said he saw Ratcliff holding her mother and crying.

"She was screaming, 'She's gone. I tried to save her, but Wes shot Mom,'" Zeman said.

The grand jury will meet Sept. 1.

by CNB