ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 15, 1996 TAG: 9611150079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
An obscene phone caller got more prison time for two Botetourt County charges Thursday than he did for 10 similar charges in Roanoke County two months ago.
Michael A. Obremski, 42, must serve 16 years in prison for two charges of threatening to abduct with intent to defile two 11-year-old girls. He was sentenced to 20 years, with four years suspended. He pleaded guilty to the charges in September.
Botetourt Circuit Judge George Honts tacked another three years of probation onto the sentence, which, the judge told Obremski, "should take care of most of your lifetime."
In September, a Roanoke County judge sentenced Obremski to 151/2 years on 10 charges of calling and threatening young girls.
Obremski has pleaded guilty in Roanoke to six similar charges.
Tom Wray, Obremski's attorney, argued in Botetourt Circuit Court for a lighter sentence and counseling.
"There's no indication that he's ever acted out beyond a phone call," Wray said.
But Botetourt Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom quickly fired back that Obremski has admitted stalking children in the Raleigh Court section of Roanoke. Citing a psychologist's report that Obremski is "unlikely to change, even with intervention," Branscom asked for the maximum sentence of 20 years.
Investigators say Obremski chose his victims from honor rolls and swim-team results in the newspaper. He was arrested in May after a three-year investigation led police to a pay phone near the Plaza Court Motel on Williamson Road, where Obremski lived. Police found a list of 400 names of potential victims in his room, including the names of 63 Botetourt girls.
The Botetourt charges stemmed from two calls, including one in which Obremski called a girl but got her mother instead. The woman pretended to be the girl until she heard a man make lewd remarks about a newspaper picture of the girl in her bathing suit.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB