Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508180034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was the 21st criminal conviction for Harry O. Graham, and the final straw for Roanoke Circuit Judge Diane Strickland.
"I think we have exhausted the options our criminal justice system has to offer you, without much success," Strickland told Graham, who turned 18 on Saturday in the Roanoke City Jail.
Earlier this year, Graham was convicted of robbery by violence in connection with an attack on Guy Scott on Oct. 28.
Scott was on his way to work at the Roanoke Fruit and Produce Co. about 4 a.m. when he crossed paths with Graham, who was finishing up a night of drinking beer, smoking marijuana and carousing with his friends.
The 67-year-old man told police he was approached by a group of youths, who asked for directions. The gang then turned on Scott, beating him in the face, emptying his wallet and pockets and stripping the wedding band from his finger before leaving him lying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood.
"This case could very easily have been a case of capital murder," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Phillips said in asking for a 30-year prison sentence for Graham, whom he characterized as the ringleader in the attack.
But defense attorney Ted Schubert described his client as a follower who was hanging out with the wrong group of friends.
Schubert also presented evidence of Graham's troubled childhood. At the time of the offense, both his parents were in jail. Graham had just finished a stint in a juvenile reformatory on theft charges, his grandmother said, and went on a binge of drinking and drug use after he was not allowed to return to high school because of his criminal record.
As a child, Graham witnessed his mother being beaten and was abused himself, a family friend testified.
Most of Graham's juvenile record involved property offenses. He was 17 when charged with robbing Scott, but a juvenile court judge ruled that he should be tried as an adult.
Despite the teen's difficult upbringing, Phillips argued that he was "just flat-out mean."
"You're 18 years old," the prosecutor told Graham on the witness stand, "and you've got a record that anybody over in that jail would be proud of."
by CNB