ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996             TAG: 9610170058
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-2  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER

MAN GETS 5 YEARS IN KILLING DEFENDANT HAD CLAIMED SELF-DEFENSE

Terry Wayne Stephens was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for killing a 19-year-old Roanoke man during an argument over a girl they had both dated.

Stephens, 20, had claimed he shot Antoine Wilkerson in self-defense, but accepted a plea agreement that reduced his murder charge to voluntary manslaughter. The agreement also set Stephens' punishment at half of the maximum 10-year sentence for manslaughter.

At a hearing in Roanoke Circuit Court, Detective M.E. Meador of the Roanoke Police Department gave the following summary of the evidence:

Wilkerson and Stephens had been arguing about Stephens' girlfriend, who had previously dated Wilkerson, when they met the morning of March 29, 1995. When Wilkerson began to make threats, Stephens got in his car and drove away.

Wilkerson followed and tailgated Stephens around town for the next half-hour. When they stopped at 15th Street and Centre Avenue Northwest, Wilkerson walked up to Stephens' car, leaned inside and tried to grab him.

That's when Stephens shot him twice in the stomach.

As Stephens drove away, Wilkerson staggered back to his car and collapsed behind the steering wheel. He was dead by the time police arrived at the scene a short time later.

Although Stephens quickly became a suspect, police were not able to make an arrest until more than a year later. Charges were filed after Melvin Childress, who was in the back seat of Stephens' car but initially told police he didn't see anything, later changed his story to implicate Stephens.

Two other people also told police they had heard Stephens admit to shooting Wilkerson.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Melvin Hill said he offered the plea agreement to Stephens because of the risk that a jury might have found that the killing was in self-defense. Hill noted that Stephens had tried to walk away when first confronted.

"He did a lot to avoid the actual confrontation that led to Mr. Wilkerson's death," Hill said.

Stephens, who has been incarcerated since he was indicted in July, will have to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence - four years and three months.

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