ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN AND LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITERS
NOTE: Lede
Seeking early release from prison, where he was serving a five-year sentence for malicious wounding, theft and breaking and entering, Benjamin Lilly insisted he had learned his lesson.
"I have come to realize that there is no future in breaking the laws," he wrote in March 1993.
Police believe Lilly forgot that lesson when he finally was released from prison last July.
Lilly, 27, of Riner; his brother Mark Anthony Lilly, 20, also of Riner; and Gary Wayne Barker, 19, of Merrimac Road in Montgomery County, are suspects in Tuesday's slaying of Alexander Vinicio DeFilippis, a 22-year-old Virginia Tech student.
Besides capital murder, the three Montgomery County men face other charges in Floyd County, Montgomery County, Blacksburg and Giles County.
Investigators say DeFilippis, a junior from McLean who was majoring in environmental science, was shot after being abducted from the parking lot of Hethwood Xpress off Prices Fork Road in Blacksburg, where he was waiting in his car as a roommate made a photocopy.
Thomas Staegero, 22, said he asked DeFilippis to stop at the convenience store on their way to a friend's house so he could copy some class notes.
``He was always doing favors for people, and he would drop everything and give you a ride,'' said Vinicio Ingrao, a third roommate and DeFilippis' cousin.
Staegero said while he was in the store, a man came running in and said DeFilippis had been abducted and taken away in the car. ``By the time I got outside, they were gone.''
The car the suspects had been driving was left outside the convenience store, Montgomery County Sheriff's Deputy Dan Haga said.
A Montgomery County deputy found DeFilippis' body on Whitethorne Road, a few miles south of the Giles County line, just before 11 p.m. Tuesday. He was clad in only his underwear and socks and had been shot three times in the head.
One of the suspects had told Giles County officers where to find the body after the three were arrested in connection with two convenience store robberies in Eggleston and Pembroke.
Three guns the suspects had were believed to have been stolen from a house in Floyd County Tuesday afternoon.
DeFilippis' death shocked the university and law enforcement communities. Officers expressed outrage that the suspects, with lengthy criminal records and pending charges, had been repeatedly freed on bond. The community was shocked that a killing could begin outside the popular Xpress store.
"He was a Catholic boy, go to Mass every Sunday. ... He was good boy, got good marks in school," Mary Buscema, DeFilippis' grandmother, said from her daughter's home in McLean.
His family expected to see him next week when he came home for the holidays, she said.
She and her husband, Vincenzo Buscema, said their grandson visited a prison in Virginia to play cards with inmates and tutor them.
DeFilippis' father came to the United States from Lenola, Italy, 27 years ago and owns a travel agency in northern Virginia. Ezio DeFilippis was managing a tour in Rome this week and had asked his son to come along.
``He told his dad he couldn't go because he had exams this week,'' Ingrao said.
Vincenzo Buscema, DeFilippis' grandfather, said DeFilippis' father flew home Wednesday after learning of his son's death.
"My daughter can't even cry because she still doesn't believe that this has actually happened," Buscema said in Italian in an interview with Andrea Visconti, New York correspondent for AGL Newspapers, a news syndicate in Italy. "They left him there like an animal."
Mary Buscema said she can't understand why the men who killed her grandson didn't just "take the car and leave him alive."
"I'm Catholic, I want to forgive them, but they did something very bad," she said.
DeFilippis' aunt, Bernadette Falcon of Falls Church, said that a few years ago, she gave him the 1986 Dodge Aries he was driving Tuesday night. She had worried that it would break down. ``He told me, `I can keep it going. Besides, who would want this junky old car? I'm safe in it.'''
Capt. O.P. Ramsey of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said Mark Lilly and Barker have told investigators they planned to release DeFilippis, but that Benjamin Lilly decided to shoot him.
The suspects evidently decided to take DeFilippis's car when theirs ran out of gas, Ramsey said.
"Their story is that they were going to take his clothes and just put him out and let him walk away ..." Ramsey said.
The two other suspects said that as DeFilippis was walking away, Benjamin Lilly jumped out of the car and told him to wait, Ramsey said.
Barker and Mark Lilly say they heard two shots, but Ramsey believes there were more than that. An autopsy determined that DeFilippis was shot three times in the head and once through his right forearm.
Mark Lilly and Barker told authorities that when they asked Ben Lilly why he shot the young man, he replied: "'Cause he saw my face," Ramsey said.
As of Wednesday evening, Ben Lilly hadn't made a statement to authorities, Ramsey said.
Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith said warrants were obtained Wednesday charging all three with capital murder, abduction, carjacking, robbery and four counts of use of a firearm.
Only the person who fired the fatal shot can be given the death penalty, Keith said. The others would face life in prison.
Benjamin Lilly also faces a charge of possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony.
None of the Montgomery County warrants had been served by Wednesday evening. All three suspects were being held without bond in the Giles County Jail on the armed robbery and firearms charges.
DeFilippis transferred from George Mason University to Virginia Tech more than two years ago. He switched from studying liberal arts to environmental science, a major in the Agricultural and Life Sciences Department that focuses on crop and soil development.
"He sat in the front row," said one of his professors, Waldon Kerns. "Not only was he a good student, he was a pleasant person to talk to."
DeFilippis lived with three roommates in College Park, a well-kept apartment complex on Patrick Henry Drive. His first-floor apartment faced the grassy inner courtyard, swimming pool and hot tub.
About 1 a.m. Wednesday, Stacy Hardeman was studying for final exams in her apartment in the complex when she heard police radios, then screaming from the adjacent apartment.
"They were crying and screaming about someone being killed," the Tech sophomore said. "It didn't seem real - I couldn't imagine what could be so serious."
Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said counselors went to the apartment Wednesday. Several close friends have already left for home.
Wednesday was the last day of classes before final exams began and rumors of the abduction and homicide traveled slowly across Virginia Tech's campus.
Hearing the news made some students question whether they're still safe in this usually quiet community.
"I go running Monday and Wednesday nights at around 11 - all over Blacksburg," said sophomore Todd Warren as he studied for a physics exam. "You just don't expect this here."
Staff writers Elizabeth Obenshain and Adrianne Bee and the Associated Press contributed information to this story
LENGTH: Long : 146 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. The victim: Allessandro (Alexander) Vinicioby CNBDeFilippis, 22, of McLean, a junior environmental sciences major at
Virginia Tech. 2. The suspects: Benjamin Lee Lilly, 27, or Riner.
Was released on probation in July after serving a 5 1/2 year prison
sentence for malicious wounding and grand larceny. 3. Mark Anthony
Lilly, 20, of Riner. Faced indictment on breaking and entering and
grand larceny in Montgomery County. 4. Gary Wayne Barker, 19, of
Merrimac Road, Montgomery County. Was awaiting trial on grand
larceny, forery and other charges in Montgomery County. color.
Graphic: Map by Adrew Svec: Tuesday's crime trail. color. KEYWORDS: FATALITY