ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996 TAG: 9603290089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
HERMAN JEROME EVANS was sentenced after breaking into his girlfriend's apartment and slashing her with a meat cleaver.
A Bedford man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday for breaking into his ex-girlfriend's house and stabbing and slashing her repeatedly with a meat cleaver.
Herman Jerome Evans, 33, faced up to 40 years for the felony malicious wounding and breaking-and-entering charges. Evans, who denied breaking into the house and said that he stabbed Pearl King only in self-defense, pleaded no contest to the charges in January.
At a preliminary hearing last year, King testified that Evans broke into her Bedford house and cut her repeatedly.
She and her two sons, ages 8 and 12, had gone out for the evening, she said, before returning between midnight and 1 a.m. and going to bed.
King's 12-year-old son testified that he had been in bed five to 10 minutes when he heard a noise and saw someone get up from under his bed and walk toward his mother's room.
A few minutes later, Evans was sitting on King's bed, where she and her 8-year-old son had been sleeping. Evans and King struggled, and the 8-year-old, who was not injured, was knocked off the bed. King's 12-year-old son ran for help.
Evans slashed King's fingers, arms and face with the meat cleaver, then went into the hall. When he did, she called police.
He came back, she said, grabbed her from behind and gave her a deep gash on the back of her neck. After hearing sirens, he fled.
Bedford police arrested Evans minutes later at a car wash near King's house. The weapon was not found, but a police investigator testified that Evans' brother said a meat cleaver was missing from his mother's house, where Evans sometimes stayed.
LENGTH: Short : 43 linesby CNB