ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 8, 1995 TAG: 9512080086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
Paul D. Thompson will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing a West Virginia man - unless a Roanoke jury decides otherwise in an upcoming capital murder trial.
Thompson, a 25-year-old drifter charged with crimes in three states, pleaded guilty Thursday to beating a man to death with a piece of wood on the victim's Marion County farm in West Virginia. As part of a plea agreement, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Next week, Thompson is to go on trial in Roanoke on charges of using a wrench to strike a fatal blow to Virgie Green, robbing her, then stuffing her body into a car trunk behind her Roanoke home.
At a hearing earlier this week, his attorneys said they wanted Thompson to plead guilty to the West Virginia slaying so the Roanoke jury could be assured he would never be released on parole - in the hope they would sentence him to life instead of death.
Because Green was killed in October 1994, Thompson would not be affected by no-parole laws that took effect in Virginia on Jan. 1.
At a hearing in Marion County Circuit Court, Thompson pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy in connection with the death of 63-year-old Harold Lee Jones.
Prosecutor James Hearst said in summarizing the evidence that Thompson and David McKeone - his traveling companion and friend from prison - went to Jones' farm near Fairmont in August 1994 because they heard he had a large amount of money.
Once there, they followed him into a shed. While McKeone talked to Jones, Hearst said, Thompson picked up a piece of wood and hit him in the head from behind. The two men then fled, and wound up in Roanoke a few months later.
Green, 44, invited them into her Woods Avenue home. At an earlier trial, McKeone testified that Thompson - concerned that Green would turn them in to police - struck her in the head with a wrench from behind while she was playing cards.
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines KEYWORDS: ROMURby CNB