ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 18, 1997 TAG: 9704180084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER THE ROANOKE TIMES
"He walked out there armed and shot her down multiple times," said Roanoke County prosecutor Marian Kelley.
The first thing a Roanoke County police officer heard when he pulled up to a Malvern Road home in early February were the shouts of Ronald Brooks Jr.
```We're over here. We're both dying,''' Officer Steve Elswick quoted Brooks as saying.
Elswick was responding to a malicious wounding call, but instead he found a homicide.
Brooks' former girlfriend Lisa Sizemore was lying face down on the front steps.
Sizemore, 26, had been shot several times and had no pulse. Brooks, 32, was on his hands and knees six feet away, bleeding from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Soon afterwards, Brooks told Elswick ```I shot her, then I shot myself,''' Elswick testified during Brooks' preliminary hearing Thursday in Roanoke County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Based primarily on Elswick's testimony, Judge Philip Trompeter certified charges of murder and use of a firearm against Brooks to the Circuit Court grand jury that will meet in June.
According to court testimony, Sizemore had moved out of Brooks' home a week before her death and moved in with one of Brooks' former best friends.
The night of the shooting, she had driven to Brooks' Northwest Roanoke County home to get some belongings. Prosecutors say that Brooks, who told police he drank 10 beers that night, lured her over to his home by saying that he was going to put her things on the street.
"He walked out there armed and shot her down multiple times," said Roanoke County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Marian Kelley. "He was lying in wait, he premeditated, he deliberated and he killed her."
But Brooks offered a different version of events. According to court testimony, Brooks told Elswick that Sizemore called him about getting her things and laughed and joked during the conversation.
Elswick testified that Brooks told him he was angry over Sizemore's attitude and her romantic relationship with his friend, Doug Lakes. Elswick also testified that Brooks said he had made his mind up to shoot Sizemore before she arrived.
When Lakes, Sizemore and another friend backed into Brooks' driveway that February night, she assured them that everything would be OK.
But as soon as Sizemore stepped onto the sidewalk, Lakes testified that Brooks walked outside and said, ```You'll never do this to me again, bThen he shot her.
Lakes and his friend immediately pulled out of Brooks' driveway to call police. All they could hear was Sizemore screaming, Lakes testified. Brooks later told police that if his shotgun had not jammed, he would have shot at the fleeing pickup as well, according to testimony.
An autopsy report showed that Sizemore was shot several times with two different guns, a shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver, Kelly said in an interview outside of court. According to court testimony, Brooks used the same revolver to shoot himself in the head.
After the preliminary hearing, Brooks was convicted of two misdemeanors for threatening relatives and was sentenced to six months in jail. Brooks' mother, Jean Brooks, and brother-in-law, Chris Williams, swore out a summons and a warrant for Brooks on Feb. 2, six days before Sizemore was shot.
"If they'd arrested him on that charge, maybe the girl would still be alive," Jean Brooks testified.
But Trompeter dismissed the possibility that the court system was responsible for Sizemore's death. "That's a real big pill for the court to swallow," he said.
Kelley agreed. If Brooks had been arrested, he probably would have been given bond, she said.
Richard Lawrence, Brooks' attorney, could not be reached for comment.
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