ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608120070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONOKE, ARK.
SOURCE: Associated Press
An ex-convict wanted on double murder charges in Virginia was in jail Saturday after being chased down by Arkansas State Police on two rural highways.
Thomas Howard Campbell, 26, is charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of two men found Thursday in the garage of a home near the Augusta County community of Churchville.
Police had been searching for Campbell and his wife, Terry Lynn Campbell, 29, both of Augusta County, since they fled the area Thursday. Arkansas State Police said Campbell wrecked a car Friday night after being chased on U.S. 70 and Arkansas 31 in Lonoke County. Arkansas officers said they gave chase after Campbell crossed the center line of U.S. 70.
Campbell's wife was also taken into custody on a charge of car theft, said Sgt. A.C. Powers, the investigating officer in the Augusta County Sheriff's Office. Other charges against her were pending.
Powers did not know when the Campbells would be returned to Virginia.
Campbell was charged with killing Richard M. Fountaine Jr., 27, of Stuarts Draft, and William Bryant Hester, 21, of Mount Sidney. They were slain between 2 and 4 a.m. Thursday in the home owned by a family that Campbell knows, Power said. The family was away on vacation at the time.
Police found the bodies in the garage after being alerted by a telephone caller.
Powers said Campbell and the victims were acquainted and the slayings may have been drug-related.
Campbell was released from Cold Springs, Va., Correctional Center on Oct. 16 after serving time for a parole violation. He had been convicted of grand larceny and breaking and entering in Augusta and neighboring Rockingham County.
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB