Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995 TAG: 9509200045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TONYA WOODS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Joe Gardener Bolling, 48, remained free on a $50,000 property bond after a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Bedford County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
He and his live-in girlfriend, Torina Lynn Wright, 27, had been arguing about the placement of pictures of Bolling's children from a previous relationship, according to a statement Bolling gave police the night of the shooting.
According to the statement, which was read in court by Detective R.W. Gardner, Bolling and Wright bickered off and on.
After the argument, Wright left, saying she was going to her mother's house. She returned about 15 minutes later, and the dispute resumed.
Gardner testified that there were no signs of a struggle between Bolling and Wright, and that Bolling told him that he would sometimes use the gun to threaten Wright to get her to leave the house. But Bolling said he never would have shot Wright intentionally, and that the shooting was an accident.
``She was supposed to be going to her mama's house,'' Bolling said in the statement. ``The only way I can get her to leave sometimes is to threaten her. ... I'm sorry I ever touched it.''
Bolling said in his statement that as Wright was heading out the door, he pulled a 44-caliber revolver from a hall closet. As he pulled the gun down from an upper shelf, Bolling said, it went off.
Richard Roberts, a forensics expert with the state, testified that this type of gun could not have gone off without the trigger being pulled.
The bullet entered Wright's upper right buttock and exited above her waist. She died in a rescue helicopter as it prepared to take her to Bedford County Memorial Hospital.
Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz said Bolling was aware of the loaded firearm in his house, so he may have intended to shoot Wright.
``He made a conscious decision to get a gun,'' Krantz said. ``So it is more likely than not that this was done intentionally.''
Philip Baker, the defense lawyer, said the position of Wright's wound indicated Bolling could not have meant to kill her.
``We ask the court to consider the location of the shot,'' he said. ``In the buttocks is unusual, so there was no intent to kill.''
The grand jury is scheduled to meet the first week in October.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB