ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
A Wythe County grand jury has indicted two young Max Meadows men for abduction and murder in the death of a 17-year-old boy who died from exposure last January.
The body of Ricky Lee Coleman, who lived with his mother near Max Meadows, was found near a creek in a remote section of the county Jan. 21.
Authorities say Coleman was beaten, rolled into a blanket, driven away in a car trunk and thrown in a creek by Jason Dennis Hibbs, 19, and Eric Dwayne Ball, 20.
Also charged with abduction is Eric Wimmer, 18, who was 17 at the time of Coleman's death. A prosecution motion to move his case from juvenile to Circuit Court was granted last month but may be appealed.
Wimmer was not indicted Monday with the other two.
Hibbs and Ball each gave a statement to investigators. They indicated that Coleman was at Hibbs' home on the night of Jan. 18 at a party where drinking was going on, and was asked to leave after turning over some furniture.
Herman Hibbs, Jason Hibbs' father, said his son told other family members that he hit Coleman only once when Coleman refused to leave after breaking a lamp and turning over a TV set.
An autopsy showed that Coleman did not die from a blow or blows, but from exposure to cold. Coleman was not wearing a shirt when he was dropped in the creek. Sheriff Wayne Pike said in January that the creek apparently carried Coleman a short distance from where he was dumped.
Apparently, Coleman had not attended school since October, when he was withdrawn from Pulaski County High School. He had alternated between that school and Fort Chiswell High School in Wythe County.
He attended Fort Chiswell for about six weeks during the 1993-94 school year and again in 1994-95. School records show he performed satisfactorily the first time, but not the second.
Coleman's mother did not report him missing until Jan. 20, two days after the party. She said she thought he had been staying with a friend.
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB