ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 4, 1996 TAG: 9612040073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: JARRATT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Gregory Beaver, telling his wife he was ``going to a better place,'' was executed Tuesday night for the 1985 slaying of a state trooper who had pulled over Beaver's car on a traffic stop.
Beaver, 30, was put to death by injection at Greensville Correctional Center. He was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m., said David Garraghty, chief warden of the prison.
Beaver, a stocky man with red hair and a beard, made a final statement to his wife. ``I love you, Vickie, and I'm going to a better place,'' he said.
Beaver was visited Tuesday by his wife, mother, father and minister.
The official witnesses to the execution included five police officers, including three state troopers, and the man who prosecuted Beaver.
Trooper Carroll Turner was a friend of the victim, Trooper Leo Whitt, and worked with Whitt for 16 years. Asked if Beaver got what he deserved, Turner said, ``A little late, but yeah.''
Earlier Tuesday, Gov. George Allen rejected an appeal for clemency for Beaver.
``Gregory Warren Beaver committed a despicable crime: the cold-blooded murder of a Virginia State Trooper,'' Allen said in a statement. ``There is absolutely no question whatsoever as to Beaver's guilt.''
In asking Allen to commute the sentence, attorney Christopher McMurray claimed that Beaver lacked adequate counsel during his trial. One of Beaver's trial lawyers was and is a part-time prosecutor, and the other has lost his license temporarily for neglecting clients.
Allen rejected those grounds for appeal.
``None of the courts that considered this issue saw it as justification for preventing the sentence of the trial court being carried out, nor do I,'' Allen said.
Allen was Beaver's last hope. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for a stay of execution.
Beaver, of Brunswick, Md., pleaded guilty to shooting Whitt, 48, in the neck and between the eyes in April 1985 during a routine traffic stop on Interstate 95.
A hitchhiker riding with Beaver witnessed the murder in Prince George County. After leaving the scene, Beaver bragged to the hitchhiker that he ``got away with shooting a police officer.'' Beaver was arrested in Henrico County.
At the time of the slaying, Beaver was wanted by Maryland authorities for escaping from an in-patient drug treatment program. The program had been ordered in lieu of a lengthy prison term for 10 felony convictions.
After the escape, Beaver assaulted and robbed his stepfather at the family's Maryland restaurant, then fled to Florida.
In an interview Monday, Beaver said he was ready for whatever came.
Allen stressed the need to remember the slain trooper and his family.
``Trooper Whitt was loyally serving the people of this Commonwealth at the time he was murdered. He was acting to protect us all.''
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB