Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Hampton, 37, already has been sentenced to three life terms in Pulaski County for participating in the beating and robbery of a man who was left seriously injured, and 30 years in prison for abducting a 62-year-old woman from a Wal-Mart in Greensboro, N.C.
Hampton, who was on parole for murder at the time of the crime spree, still faces charges in West Virginia - federal charges of aggravated sexual assault and state charges of sexual assault, abduction and grand larceny. He is accused of abducting a woman in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Raleigh County, driving her to the New River Gorge National River Park in Summers County and sexually assaulting her.
In Montgomery County Circuit Court on Wednesday, Hampton pleaded guilty to robbery, carjacking, abduction and two counts of malicious wounding. Judge Ray Grubbs gave Hampton 50 years in prison, to be served consecutively to his other sentences.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Schwab said the Montgomery County charges stemmed from two incidents on Feb. 24, 1994, as Hampton tried to stay a step ahead of Pulaski County authorities who were searching for him after his indictment on charges of beating and robbing a Hazel Hollow Road man the previous fall.
About 10:30 that day, Hampton went to the McCoy Garage in western Montgomery County and asked Buford McCoy for some tires. When McCoy, 81, turned to fill the order, he was hit in the back of the head and felt money being taken from his pocket, Schwab said.
Hampton later was spotted by Pulaski County authorities, who were searching for him in the Elliston area, but they lost sight of him. About 11:30, two Maryland women were approached at the Ironto rest area on Interstate 81 by a man who demanded their car.
Schwab, reading a summary of evidence the state would have presented against Hampton if the case had gone to trial, said the car's driver, Evelyn Rappapord, was out of the car when Hampton slid behind the steering wheel.
Emily Kimball, a passenger, told him he was in the wrong car, but Hampton said, "I need to borrow it," Schwab said.
Kimball got out of the car, but Rappapord kept trying to get to the steering wheel or the ignition key, Hampton said in a taped statement to an investigator after he was arrested in North Carolina. Both women asked for their purses, but he said he threw them out.
Rappapord held on, however.
"I believe I hit her a couple of times," Hampton said in his taped statement, and Rappapord fell to the road after Hampton had driven about 100 yards.
Hampton, who is from Christiansburg, was released on parole in April 1992 after serving part of a 30-year prison sentence he received in 1976 for the fatal beating of a 95-year-old Montgomery County woman.
by CNB