ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
Faced with the hardships of being a single mother and stuck in a homeless shelter with no family support, Veronica Via wanted to send her newborn daughter to "a better place."
So she killed her, a Roanoke prosecutor said Thursday.
In opening statements to a jury in Roanoke Circuit Court, Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony said Via beat her 14-day-old daughter, Jasmine, to death last Dec. 16 at a homeless shelter.
Via told police that she wanted "to send [her daughter] to live with Jesus," Anthony said.
Citing Via's comments to police about not wanting to raise a child alone under difficult conditions, Anthony called the 29-year-old "a selfish mother who took a 14-day-old baby's life, rather than put up with the inconvenience of having her around."
But when the trial resumes today, defense attorneys will try to portray Via in a different light.
Although Via may have confessed to police that she hit her child, "that is neither the beginning nor the end of the issue in this case," Assistant Public Defender Steve Milani said.
Having been abandoned by the child's father and her family, Via was under extreme stress at the time, he said. "She felt the weight of all her obligations pushing down on her.
"She didn't think about the consequences of her actions; she did not intend to kill her own child."
On the morning of Dec. 17, Via took the blanket-wrapped body of her dead daughter to Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital, where she had given birth just two weeks earlier.
Via told doctors that she had awakened in her room that morning at the Transitional Living Center, a homeless shelter operated by Total Action Against Poverty on 24th Street Northwest, and found Jasmine lying dead in her crib.
She repeated the story to a police detective who was called to the hospital, saying she had no idea what could have caused her daughter's death.
But when an autopsy determined several months later that Jasmine died from head injuries, Detective K.L. Sidwell of the Roanoke Police Department asked Via for another interview.
After hours of interrogations over several weeks, Via changed her story in June to say that she had accidentally dropped her daughter on a crib railing, then changed it again to say that she hit her ``10 times, maybe more" in the back of her head - partly because she was frustrated with the infant's crying.
In a statement read to the jury, Via told Sidwell that she was not optimistic about the life her daughter would have had, growing up without a father or even a home.
"We're in this world of confusion, going through trials and tribulations, and I think she's in a much better place now than we are," Via told Sidwell. "She's in God's arms, which is a better place."
Before the trial began, Milani had asked Judge Clifford Weckstein to move the case to another jurisdiction, citing concerns about a story published Wednesday in The Roanoke Times.
The story reported a pre-trial hearing in which Weckstein granted Milani's motion to bar prosecutors from mentioning the fact that seven years ago, Via had another daughter who died under mysterious conditions. Via was never charged in connection with that death.
Milani, who had argued that the mere mention of the earlier death would prejudice jurors, said the likelihood of potential jurors reading the story "would make it difficult if not impossible, for Ms. Via to get a fair trial in Roanoke."
But Weckstein denied the motion, saying he would first try to seat an impartial jury. Of 36 potential jurors questioned Thursday, only seven said they had read the story or heard other news reports about the issue. They were all excused.
The trial will resume this morning, and a verdict is expected by day's end. If convicted of first-degree murder, Via would face a maximum sentence of life in prison with no parole.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER/Staff. Veronica Via told police she wanted toby CNBsend her daughter "to live with Jesus." Thursday, she listened to
potential jurors at court.