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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 23, 1995                   TAG: 9509230007
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

4 1/2-YEAR TERM SPELLS ANOTHER LOSS FOR FAMILY

Victor R. Basham was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison Friday for stabbing his brother to death, despite pleas from his family - torn between grief for the victim and sympathy for the defendant - that he walk free.

"We not only lost one brother, but, in a way, we are losing another one," one of Basham's sisters testified in Roanoke Circuit Court. "We need him in our family, and he needs us."

Basham, 25, had pleaded no contest earlier to killing his older brother, Kenneth, after a night of drinking and arguing ended in a scuffle on 31st Street Northwest the morning of Jan. 14.

"I'm very sorry for what has happened, and God knows I didn't mean to do what was done," Victor Basham testified, explaining that he accidentally stabbed his brother with a butcher knife after Kenneth Basham lunged at him.

Assistant Public Defender Jackie Talevi had asked Judge Clifford Weckstein to sentence Victor Basham to the time he already has served in jail, noting that his family was united in asking that he not be punished any further.

"This is a family that is yearning to pull together and show support for the son who is here, while still grieving for the one that is no longer with them," Talevi said.

Despite the family's wishes, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wanda DeWease said, a term of 10 years in prison was justified " to reassure the community that the sanctity of life is given the respect that it deserves."

In sentencing Victor Basham to 20 years, suspended after he serves 41/2, Weckstein noted that the sentence "means something different," because he will not be eligible for parole. Under laws that went into effect Jan. 1, he will serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.

No clear motive has emerged for the killing. In a statement to police, Victor Basham said he had been arguing with his 34-year-old brother at a city bar earlier in the night. He also said Kenneth Basham had "hurt his pride" by knocking him down.

After using a butcher knife to slash the tires on his brother's car, Victor Basham met him on 31st Street, where the stabbing happened. When police arrived about 2:30 a.m., they found him standing over Kenneth Basham's body.

Kenneth Basham, who was office manager of Oncology and Hematology Associates at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, died at the hospital several hours later.

"I think that [Victor Basham] has been punished enough," Basham's mother testified. "He's going to have to live with this for the rest of his life, and that's punishment enough."

by CNB