ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
A Roanoke woman was charged Monday with beating her infant daughter to death at a homeless shelter last December.
In a statement to police last month, Veronica Janine Via said she was worried that she could not raise her 14-day-old daughter alone, so she decided to send her to "a better place."
"I knew that she was going to be with the Lord," Via told Detective Keith Sidwell of the Roanoke Police Department's youth bureau.
After Sidwell testified Monday to a grand jury in Roanoke Circuit Court, Via was indicted on a charge of murder.
Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said a $20,000 bond has been set, and authorities have given Via until Friday to turn herself in to authorities.
Via, 28, is accused of killing Jasmine Monique Via last Dec. 16 at the Transitional Living Center, a program for homeless people that is operated on 24th Street Northwest by Total Action Against Poverty.
Although authorities were suspicious about the infant's injuries as soon as she was admitted to a Roanoke hospital, they did not get a break in the case until Via confessed last month. Via also told police that she hit her daughter "about 10 times, maybe more" because she was frustrated with the infant's crying.
An official at the Transitional Living Center confirmed that Via and her daughter were residents of the home last December but said she didn't know anything about the allegations contained in the indictment.
"We did not know that anything at all was awry," said Nadirah Preston, assistant program manager at the center.
Via is no longer a resident of the center, which offers a 24-month program for homeless people that includes counseling, Preston said.
Monday's indictment marked the second time in the past two years that a Roanoke woman has been charged with killing her young child, in part because of frustrations with the child's crying.
Last year, Simone Ayton pleaded guilty to drowning her 7-month old son in a bathtub at her apartment on Ferncliff Avenue Northwest in November 1994. A judge sentenced Ayton to 18 years in prison.
Via could not be reached for comment Monday. As of 9:30 p.m., she was not being held in the Roanoke City Jail.
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