ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997 TAG: 9704110058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
SOURCE: RON NIXON THE ROANOKE TIMES
Timothy Stocks, of Lost Creek, Ky., was given 15 years for murder and two years for eluding police.
A 19-year-old Kentucky man was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the death of a Covington man after a chase with state police last year.
Timothy Stocks, of Lost Creek, Ky., was charged with second-degree felony murder for the death of Timothy Mays. Stocks was given 15 years for the murder and two years for eluding police during the chase.
The felony-murder statute applied because Stocks committed the murder in the process of committing another felony, car theft. Typically the charge in a case where a motorist is killed by another driver is manslaughter.
Stocks and a fellow passenger stole the car from a vocational-technical school in Jackson, Ky.
The Sept. 30 chase began when a state trooper running radar on Interstate 64 in Alleghany County clocked a car going 87 mph. Speeds reached more than 90 mph before the trooper broke off his pursuit just before he reached a winding stretch of U.S. 220 just north of Gala.
But the other car sped into the curve and crashed into 29-year-old Mays, who was on his way home from his job at Ritz Camera at Valley View Mall. Stocks and his family wept as Botetourt Circuit Judge George E. Honts III imposed the sentence Thursday. Honts said that even though the death of Mays was accidental, "the victim was killed in the most aggravated manner."
Looking at Stocks, Honts said: "During your short life you have shown a complete disregard for the law."
"I'm sorry," Stocks said, breaking into tears. " I wish I could change it. I never should have took the car. I did a stupid thing. I feel sorry for Mrs. Mays. Her son is gone. I have to live with his death the rest of my life."
Botetourt County Commonwealth Attorney Joel Branscom said he had compassion for Stocks.
But, he added, ``There are some things you do that are of such magnitude that `I'm sorry' doesn't cut it.
``On the night that he did this, he didn't care about the officer's life he put in danger. He didn't care about the other people that could have been hurt. All he cared about was what he wanted,'' Branscom said.
``I know 20 years is a long time to be in prison,'' Branscom said. ``But death is a long time for someone who was just 29 years old.''
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