ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 26, 1996 TAG: 9611260108
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
A plea agreement reduced the capital murder charge against Christopher James Saul Monday, convicting the 20-year-old man of first-degree murder and robbery for beating to death an auto mechanic New Year's Day.
The agreement eliminated the prosecution's option to seek the death penalty and set Saul's maximum possible sentence at two life terms.
Early Jan. 2, employees of General Imports Sales & Service on Brambleton Avenue in Roanoke County found the body of their co-worker, Christopher Wilson, 26, near a vehicle lift in a rear garage. Wilson had been beaten to death with a wrench and metal hood jack, according to court testimony.
Three days after the killing, a friend implicated Saul, a roofer from Southeast Roanoke. Police arrested him Jan. 6 and found in his apartment a bomber jacket and ball cap stained with Wilson's blood. Wilson's car was recovered 200 yards from Saul's home.
On Monday, Saul pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and robbery in Roanoke County Circuit Court, acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. But whether Saul intentionally murdered Wilson will be the focus of his January sentencing. He faces 20 years to life for first-degree murder and five years to life for robbery.
"There's two sides to what occurred," said Jack Gregory, who was appointed with William Cleaveland to represent Saul. "He's admitted to the sequence of events, but why that happened - those are the things you'll hear on Jan.27."
The evidence against Saul, along with witness statements that Saul admitted struggling with the victim, made a plea agreement less risky than a jury, according to his defense team.
"It's trying to sort out how far to carry the risks in the case to make sure justice is served," Cleaveland said.
If a jury believed the prosecutor's evidence and convicted Saul of capital murder, that would have left open the possibility that he could have been sentenced to death.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Leach said he had not decided whether he would have sought the death penalty. But he acknowledged that a plea agreement also minimized his risk - the possibility a jury might acquit Saul or convict him of a lesser charge than first-degree murder.
If Saul had testified that he never meant to kill Wilson, and that the murder was committed during a confrontation after Wilson made sexual advances toward him, a jury could have found the murder was not premeditated, Leach said.
"There are risks in any situation taking a case to a jury," Leach said. An agreement was reached late Friday "when we realized there was a possibility to work this out and that the risks were nonexistent - he now has no right of appeal and faces a [maximum] double-life sentence."
According to prosecution testimony, Saul needed a car to drive his friends from Moneta to a Roanoke hotel for a New Year's celebration. The night of Jan. 1, Saul called a friend and said he had a car.
Early on Jan. 2, Saul appeared at the friend's Moneta trailer in Wilson's silver-and-black car, according to testimony from Roanoke County Detective Jeff Herrick. There, Saul counted out money from Wilson's wallet and later attempted to withdraw more money from Wilson's account at an ATM.
During the night, Saul told one of his friends that he had beaten Wilson with a stick and said he was concerned about getting blood out of his clothing, Herrick said.
Wilson's car was found Jan. 4 on the 2100 block of Bennington Road Southeast.
At the time of the murder, Cleaveland said, Saul was on probation on a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Cleaveland said that, at Saul's sentencing, he will dispute the prosecution's contention that Saul lured Wilson to the garage to kill and rob him.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON STAFF Christopher Saul, 20, blows a kissby CNBto his wife after a Salem hearing in which he pleaded no contest to
charges of first-degree murder and robbery. color KEYWORDS: ROMUR