ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 27, 1996 TAG: 9612270038
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BEAVER, W.VA.
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
A man charged with holding up stores in Pulaski and Abingdon remained in jail Thursday in West Virginia, but another Virginia locality got in line to extradite him.
Henry Douglas Burton, 48, of Sprague, W.Va., now faces new charges of armed robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the Dec. 9 holdup of the Acme Supermarket in Wytheville's Wythe Plaza Shopping Center on East Main Street (U.S. 11).
The charges each involve a supermarket holdup by a well-dressed bandit. In one incident, the man wore a three-piece suit. In another, the gunman wore a blazer. Store employees have identified photos of Burton as the gunman in each case.
Wytheville Police Department Investigator Wade Whisman said he showed a photo of Burton to Acme store employees among other pictures and they quickly picked Burton as the robber. Earlier, employees at a Food Lion in Fairlawn picked Burton's picture out of a similar photo lineup.
Burton had been arrested at his home Monday night by Washington County deputies on charges stemming from the robbery of the Abingdon Food Lion store on the previous Saturday.
A man wearing a blazer, white turtleneck, dress pants and dress shoes pulled a pistol at Wytheville's Acme store after asking the assistant manager to cash a check. A customer wrote down the man's license plate and a description of his car.
Pulaski County authorities filed charges against Burton from a Dec. 17 holdup at the Food Lion store in the Village Oaks Shopping Center at Fairlawn, just outside Radford. In that holdup, the gunman wore a three-piece suit.
Burton was being held in the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, W.Va., which serves seven counties in the southern part of that state. Authorities in Abingdon, Pulaski and Wytheville have all started extradition proceedings to bring him to Virginia for trial.
Whisman said West Virginia law enforcement officials are also investigating to see if Burton could be involved in some store holdups there. "I guess they'll come down the line as to who'll get him next," he said.
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