ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 16, 1996 TAG: 9611180056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
Family dies of smoke inhalation
ARLINGTON - A couple and their two children died Friday in a fire in an apartment that lacked a working smoke detector, fire officials said.
Arlington Fire Department spokesman Curtis Stilwell said firefighters were called to the first-floor apartment about 1:30 a.m. to investigate smoky odors. Firefighters broke down the door and found the victims inside.
Myrna Gonzales, 29, was found inside the door holding her 4-month-old daughter, Carla. Gonzales' husband, Carlos Rivera, 26, and their 8-year-old son, Carlos, were found in a bedroom.
Stilwell said the apartment had a smoke detector, but it did not work when firefighters tested it.
The fire was confined to a small area around the kitchen stove, which may have malfunctioned. All four apparently died from smoke inhalation.
Stilwell said investigators were trying to determine if the family was using the stove for heat on an unseasonably cold night.
- Associated Press
Man gets life for girlfriend's murder
PRINCE GEORGE - A judge has sentenced a 23-year-old Dinwiddie County man to life in prison for the March 5 slaying of the man's ex-girlfriend.
Following the slaying of Sayonara V. McLaughlin, 21, Shaun Michael Love went on a crime spree in Amherst County and Lynchburg. Love shot the woman four times with a .45-caliber pistol shortly after the two appeared in Prince George Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to have a trial date set on allegations that Love had assaulted McLaughlin.
After the shooting, Love drove west on U.S. 460. He is accused of robbing motels in Amherst County and Lynchburg later that day. Police arrested him in Roanoke after a chase that ended when Love's vehicle crashed into another car.
In addition to the life term for first-degree murder, Love was sentenced Thursday to five years for using a firearm in a murder. He also got a 20-year suspended sentence for breaking and entering with the intent to commit murder and a five-year suspended sentence for having a firearm as a felon, said prosecutor Martin Robertson.
Love was convicted in Lynchburg of robbery, using a firearm in a felony and possessing a firearm as a felon. In September, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Robertson said.
Love will be sentenced in Amherst on Dec. 4 on robbery and firearm convictions. He faces life for robbery and five years on the firearm charge.
- Associated Press
Husband's civil trial set in Norfolk
NORFOLK - Barring a last-minute settlement, a Delaware lawyer will defend himself in a civil trial over the slaying of his wife in Florida five years ago.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Smith on Thursday denied Thomas E. Smolka's last-ditch effort to have the wrongful-death case dismissed. She ordered the trial to begin Dec.9.
Three years ago, a Florida jury convicted Smolka of murdering Betty Anne Smolka and sentenced him to life in prison. He was freed last year when a Florida appeals court ruled there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict.
The lawsuit was brought by the victim's father, Willis W. Stephenson, a retired banker from Virginia Beach.
Stephenson is suing Smolka for $10 million on behalf of the Smolkas' three children. But because Smolka is broke, the only money actually in dispute is $250,000 from Betty Anne Smolka's life insurance policy.
Another $250,000 from a different policy has been paid to the children's trust fund.
Smolka, 49, is a lawyer and developer from Virginia Beach. He now lives in Wilmington, Del., and did not attend Thursday's hearing.
Betty Anne Smolka died in July 1991 while on a business trip with her husband to Ocala, Fla., where they owned a Radisson Inn. She disappeared one evening while on an errand to buy light bulbs and other supplies for the hotel.
Her rented, bloody van was found in a parking lot a few miles away. Her body was found in a field in a third location. She had been shot twice.
Prosecutors argued that Tom Smolka was in financial trouble and that he killed his wife for the insurance money. The case against Smolka rested largely on his suspicious activities after the killing and his purchase of the life insurance policy shortly before the murder.
The appeals court said the circumstantial evidence was insufficient for a conviction, but ``creates a strong suspicion that he murdered his wife.''
- Associated Press
Ex-UVa student guilty in rapes
NEWARK, N.J. - A pre-med student who had pleaded to rape and burglary charges in seven separate attacks was sentenced Friday to 12 years at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, authorities said.
Christopher McAllister, 23, of South Orange will not be eligible for parole for six years, according to Essex County Prosecutor Clifford Minor.
McAllister pleaded guilty July 19 to the attacks, which took place in Maplewood and South Orange between December 1994 and July 1995.
McAllister, who attended the University of Virginia, still could be extradited to Virginia where he has been charged with burglary, entry with the intent to commit rape and attempted rape in two attacks. He has also been linked to at least six other attacks, authorities said.
Had McAllister returned to classes in the fall of 1995 he would have completed his fifth year as a sports medicine major last spring.
Maplewood police arrested him Aug. 11, 1995.
In Charlottesville, McAllister has been charged in connection with break-ins at the homes of young women in October 1994 and May 1995.
In most of the Charlottesville cases, a man entered an unlocked door in the early morning hours. The attacker had been stalking some of his victims, police said.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. (headshot) Smolka. 2. The image of a womanby CNBholding her child, caused by smoke and heat as it settled on her
body, is imprinted on a floor. KEYWORDS: FATALITY