ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 20, 1996 TAG: 9611200056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
Jason Dennis Hibbs changed his pleas to guilty of murder and abduction Tuesday in the death by exposure of a 17-year-old Wythe County boy last January.
Hibbs consulted with his attorney and family members after all the evidence had been presented in his two-day trial before changing his pleas. Instead of a jury setting his sentence, Circuit Judge Willis Woods will do that after a pre-sentence report.
Woods revoked Hibbs' bond. He will remain in jail until sentenced.
Before changing his plea, Hibbs, 20, told the jury that he meant no harm to Ricky Lee Coleman, who died from exposure after Hibbs and two others left him unconscious in a remote area of the county.
The evidence showed that Coleman had already been drinking Jan. 18 when he and a companion came to Hibbs' home in Max Meadows. Hibbs' parents were away and the drinking continued, with Coleman becoming increasingly uncoordinated and upsetting some furniture.
Hibbs admitted hitting Coleman in the nose with such impact that blood spattered the room, and putting Coleman outside. Coleman lay on the ground for hours, moaning loudly, according to Hibbs and others who visited the house that night.
Two visitors, Eric Dwayne Ball, 20, and Eric Wimmer, 18, returned after taking some girls home. Hibbs said they beat Coleman as he lay outside. In an earlier statement, Hibbs had said he also struck Coleman, but he testified Tuesday that he had not done so.
The three eventually wrapped Coleman in a blanket, drove to a wooded area of Wythe County and dropped him over an embankment. His body was found three days later along Reed Creek. An autopsy showed death was due to exposure and a lowering of resistance to cold by the alcohol he had consumed.
Hibbs testified that it had not been his idea to leave Coleman there. He said he had not realized how incapacitated Coleman had become.
"I cared about him," Hibbs said. "I didn't think." He said he had lost sleep afterward, but admitted enjoying going on a date two nights later.
Ball and Wimmer still face charges in the case.
Defense attorney Lee Chitwood argued that the evidence did not justify a conviction of first-degree murder, but Woods said that would be an issue for the jury to decide.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Keith Blankenship said a first-degree murder conviction was justified because Coleman's death was connected with his abduction. Now, it will all be up to Woods.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB