ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 31, 1996 TAG: 9609030054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
A Franklin County man charged with shooting two people in a February dispute at a Bedford County drag racing spot pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Friday.
George Arthur English, 31, was originally charged with two counts of malicious wounding and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony; he pleaded guilty to a single felony count of unlawful wounding.
English could receive from one to five years in prison on the lesser charge. If he'd been convicted of all the original charges, he could have faced a maximum 46 years.
English fired a rifle in a crowded parking lot of an abandoned school in Moneta in an attempt to scare people who had beat him up on a previous occasion, according to his defense attorney, Drew Davis.
David Foxx of Bedford County's Body Camp area, and Reva Price, who lives in the Raintree apartment complex in Bedford, were wounded. Foxx was hit over the right eye and right armpit. Price was shot in the right thigh.
English was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser offense because Price had asked the commonwealth not to prosecute, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz. Also, the defense would have disputed whether English had intended to hit anyone when he fired the gun, which is the difference between malicious wounding and unlawful wounding.
"We admit he was probably negligent in firing the gun into the air," Davis said. "The issue would be whether there was criminal intent."
English had worn a bulletproof vest to his arraignment in February and was under armed guard because of anonymous threats made against his life to police.
The February shooting sparked a violent melee at Bedford County Memorial Hospital that same night, when friends and relatives of Foxx and Price fought with police, injuring Sgts. Ricky Gardner and Rick Wiita of the Bedford County Sheriff's Office.
Cousins Buford and Mickey Crider of Altavista and Moneta were convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery charges in connection with the attack on the officers.
Another man, Rodney Anthony, 21, of Lynch Station was later convicted of a misdemeanor charge of interfering with property rights for possessing an emergency radio that a sheriff's deputy lost in the struggle at the hospital.
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