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

DATE: SATURDAY, October 28, 1995                   TAG: 9510300083
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

SLASHING CHARGES CERTIFIED

Charges against a Bedford man accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend's house and stabbing her repeatedly with a meat cleaver were certified to a grand jury Friday.

Herman Jerome Evans, 33, originally was charged with attempted murder, but now faces charges of malicious wounding and breaking and entering with the intent to commit a felony. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison on the malicious wounding charge and 20 years to life on the breaking and entering charge.

At a preliminary hearing Friday in Bedford County General District Court, Pearl King of Bedford testified that Evans was the man who broke into her house and stabbed her in August.

King said she and her two sons, ages 8 and 12, had gone out for the evening. They returned home between midnight and 1 a.m. and went to bed, she said.

Her 12-year-old son testified that he had been in bed five to 10 minutes when he heard a noise. "I saw this figure getting up" from under the bed, he said. "He walked out toward my mom's room."

King said she and her 8-year-old son had just settled down to go to sleep when she felt something shake the bed.

She turned and saw a man sitting on the side of the bed. In the street-lamp light coming through her window, she recognized him as Evans, she said.

The two struggled, and her 8-year-old son, who was not injured in the attack, was knocked off the bed. King's 12-year-old son ran for help.

After the attacker slashed her fingers, arms and face, King said, he went into the hall for a moment. While he did, she called the police.

When he came back, he grabbed her from behind, she said, and gave her a deep gash in the back of her neck. A few moments later, after hearing sirens, the man fled.

Police arrested Evans a short while later at a car wash near King's house. The knife was not found, but a police investigator testified that Evans's brother said a meat cleaver was missing from his mother's

NOTE: Rest of story did not appear in paper.

house, where Evans sometimes stayed.

Evans is being held without bond in the Bedford County Jail.

by CNB