ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 19, 1996 TAG: 9611190103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
A 20-year-old Wythe County man pleaded innocent Monday to a murder charge stemming from a teen's death from exposure.
Jason Dennis Hibbs' attorney told the jury that his client would testify that he did not mean for Ricky Lee Coleman, 17, to die when Coleman was left unconscious along Reed Creek on the night of Jan.18.
Hibbs is charged with abduction and murder. An autopsy showed that Coleman died from exposure and alcohol in his system. The alcohol lowered his resistance to the cold.
Authorities also have charged Eric Dwayne Ball, 20, in Coleman's death. Ball's trial date has not been set. He may be called today as a prosecution witness.
Statements from the pair indicated that Hibbs, Ball and Eric Wimmer, 18, who has been charged with abduction, wrapped the unconscious Coleman in a blanket, shut him in the trunk of Ball's car, drove him to a wooded area near Graham's Forge and rolled him over an embankment.
His body was found several days later in a creek, after his mother had filed a missing-person report.
Several young people testified Monday that Coleman had joined another boy in drinking some moonshine they found in the boy's home Jan.18. They went to Hibbs' home, and Coleman drank some vodka and began losing his balance and upsetting a television set and furniture.
In statements to investigators, Hibbs said he hit Coleman in the nose. His early statements said Coleman staggered outside and collapsed in the yard and later left under his own power. In a later statement, Hibbs admitted Coleman had been carried away.
Coleman had been wearing a Charlotte Hornets jacket when he was last seen alive Jan.18. He was not wearing a shirt or the jacket when his body was recovered Jan.21.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Keith Blankenship is seeking a verdict of first-degree murder, arguing that the murder happened as part of a kidnapping. If convicted, Hibbs could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Defense attorney Lee Chitwood said Hibbs and the other young people involved made a decision based on "childish and irrational fears" when they drove Coleman into the woods and abandoned him. He said they feared that their parents or law enforcement officials would punish them for drinking.
Chitwood argued that, at most, Hibbs could be convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
The defense had asked that the case be heard by Circuit Judge Willis Woods, a retired judge who is filling in hearing cases. But Blankenship would have to have agreed to a nonjury trial, and did not do so.
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