Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511130057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sgt. Kimmy Nester said Dillon, 31, entered the mobile home of David Wayne Craig on Frog Hollow Road about 11:35 a.m. A woman also was in the mobile home; her name was not released.
Dillon cursed at Craig and acted belligerent, Nester said.
Dillon picked up a baseball bat that was in Craig's home and began swinging it at chest level in what Craig described to deputies as ``a threatening manner.''
Nester said Craig then shot Dillon once in the chest with a .22-caliber automatic pistol. Deputies seized the pistol authorities said was used in the shooting, Nester said.
Dillon died shortly thereafter at Memorial Hospital of Martinsville-Henry County.
Nester said no charges have been filed and the investigation is continuing. Authorities at state police headquarters in Salem gave a polygraph test to an eyewitness which seemed to verify Craig's story, Nester said.
Nester said Dillon's relatives took the victim's three sons - ages 5, 8 and 14 - into their home, and Social Services was informed of the boys' situation.
In the one of the other slayings, Tommy Lawrence Helms, 16, has been charged with first-degree murder. Lavina Scales, 15, was shot eight times in the head Oct. 23, and her body was left in a roadside ditch.
A team of investigators is making progress in the first slaying, in which a man was shot and killed in his home during a drug-related robbery Oct. 22, Nester said.
The second death happened after an estranged husband returned to his home after a five-month absence and his wife's boyfriend shot him during an argument, according to Nester.
The county normally averages seven or eight slayings each year, Nester said. The count was two until the recent rash of four killings.
``It looks like '95 will end with a lot of bloodshed,'' Nester said.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB