ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
Chad Joseph LaRue sobbed as he told police in November that he had accidentally dropped the shotgun that fired and killed his girlfriend, an officer testified Wednesday.
During LaRue's preliminary hearing, a firearms expert contradicted LaRue's claim. He testified that the shotgun that killed Melissa Ann Dyal could not fire accidentally; the trigger had to be pulled.
Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge J. Patrick Graybeal certified a first-degree murder and related firearms charges against LaRue. A Radford grand jury will hear the charges in March and decide if the case merits indictments and, later, trial.
Radford police Sgt. Mike Canales testified that he was the first to respond to the 911 call Nov. 24 at the apartment LaRue shared with his girlfriend. LaRue was at a neighbor's apartment with his head in his hands sobbing, Canales said.
The 26-year-old LaRue freely offered information about how his girlfriend died, Canales said.
Canales said LaRue told him, "I dropped my gun, it went bang and she fell down."
The woman LaRue was referring to was Dyal. Canales said he found the 21-year-old "nearly headless" with her upper torso slumped over the seat of a couch and in what appeared to be a kneeling position. A 20-gauge shotgun lay on the floor about six feet away, pointed in the young woman's general direction, he said.
Radford Commonwealth's Attorney Randal Duncan asked the officer if he noticed anything unusual about the way LaRue was crying.
"There never was any flow of tears down his face," Canales testified.
Richard Van Roberts, a firearms examiner for the state Division of Forensic Science's Western Laboratory, testified that he conducted several tests on the shotgun to see if it would fire accidentally.
Roberts said he cocked the gun's hammer and then hit the weapon with a rubber mallet. He also dropped it from several feet in the air onto a rubber mat and cocked the hammer back and let it go "as if my finger had slipped," he said. The gun would not fire during the tests.
"The purpose of all that is you have to pull the trigger for the gun to go off," Roberts testified.
Public Defender Roy Warburton brought out on cross-examination that police described LaRue as "hysterical and sobbing" and that he smelled "fairly strong" of alcohol.
Warburton made a motion to strike the charges against LaRue, saying the state's evidence lacked "any proof whatsoever of premeditation or malice" on LaRue's part.
Graybeal denied the motion and sent the charges on to the Circuit Court Grand Jury.
LaRue remains in the Radford City Jail on a $45,000 bond.
The shooting is the first homicide of this decade in the city.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) LaRue KEYWORDS: NRVMURby CNB