ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997 TAG: 9704160070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
She said that her husband killed Ernest James after he learned James forced her to work as a prostitute.
A jury on Tuesday convicted a prostitute of second-degree murder in the killing of a halfway house director she claimed coerced her into joining his group of call girls.
The Rockingham County Circuit Court jury recommended Jamie Raymond, 20, be sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder and two years for a grand larceny conviction.
Raymond broke down in tears after the verdicts were delivered and cried again when the sentencing recommendations were read out.
Raymond's trial exposed the seamy underside of the life of Ernest James. The former president of the Harrisonburg Chamber of Commerce managed a tire company and taught at James Madison University. But he was also a pimp who lured coeds into becoming hookers and matched them up with tire dealers.
In 1986, James was convicted of aiding and abetting prostitution and served 14 days in jail.
Following his conviction, James volunteered at a halfway house for paroled criminals. He said that he had reformed his life and had kicked his sexual addiction. He become the halfway house's director in 1994.
But Raymond's attorneys tried to show that James was still involved with prostitution.
Raymond said that her husband, Jeremy Raymond, killed James in a jealous rage after he learned James forced her to work as a prostitute.
James, 56, was stabbed 31 times with a 10-inch kitchen knife and his throat was slashed. Jeremy Raymond confessed last month to killing James and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Jeremy Raymond went to James' house last June to rob him and stabbed him while her husband watched. A detective and a jail inmate testified that Jamie Raymond said she had gone to James' house intending to kill him.
But one of Jamie Raymond's lawyers, Walter Green, argued that the Raymonds came to James' house that night not after money but a briefcase filled with contracts he had forced Jamie Raymond and other young women to sign obligating them to provide sexual favors for money.
After the robbery, the briefcase and all of its contents - bizarre sexual surveys, $500 in cash, pornographic videos and the contracts - were burned in a fire pit behind a neighbor's house, she and her husband testified.
Commonwealth's Attorney Douglas Stark urged jurors to punish Jamie Raymond when they sentenced her. ``I would ask in your sentence that you dignify the death of Ernest James,'' he said.
But defense attorney Gordon Poindexter tried to convince the jury that Jamie Raymond had been sexually abused as a child and was not responsible for her actions.
Judge Dennis Hupp will sentence her June 10.
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