
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994                    TAG: 9406290421 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B3    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940629                                 LENGTH: NEWPORT NEWS

TEENAGER CONVICTED IN POLICE SLAYING \

{LEAD} A Circuit Court jury on Tuesday convicted a teenager of first-degree murder and attempted robbery for his role in the death of a police officer who was killed while posing as a pizza delivery man.

The panel, which deliberated for about three hours, also convicted Antione Speed, 18, of two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

{REST} Newport News Circuit Judge Fred Bateman is scheduled to sentence Speed on Aug. 2. Juries in Virginia normally recommend a sentence, but that wasn't allowed in Speed's case because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime.

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney John Middlebrook told the jury authorities recovered a ski mask in one of Speed's pockets minutes after the slaying of officer Steven Rutherford in January.

The verdicts hinged on a finding that Speed acted as an accessory before the fact, meaning he helped plan the crime or in some way assisted the man who carried it out.

Speed was one of four teenagers arrested in Rutherford's death. The others, including the alleged gunman, Nephus Stanley, 18, have yet to stand trial. Stanley is the only one charged with capital murder.

Rutherford, 28, was shot Jan. 11 while posing as a pizza delivery man at a Denbigh apartment complex. Authorities allege that Speed, Stanley and the two other suspects - Antonio D. Johnson and Earl Antonio Coleman-Bey, both 19 - set out together that night to rob a pizza man called to the area.

Rutherford was used as a decoy after a pizzeria received a suspicious order from an area where several other delivery men had been robbed.

Middlebrook said Speed served as a lookout.

Speed's attorney, James Ellenson, had urged jurors to avoid applying what he called ``hand grenade law,'' saying Speed's presence near the robbery site wasn't enough by itself to convict him.

An independent investigation found several problems with the pizza operation, for which Rutherford and his partner apparently received little training. Several officers were disciplined or fired for their roles in the operation.

{KEYWORDS} MURDER ROBBERY SHOOTING NEWPORT NEWS POLICE DEPARTMENT TRIAL VERDICT by CNB