THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 27, 1994 TAG: 9407270411
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MARGARET TALEV, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Kim McClease Spruill's birthday ended in disaster early Tuesday morning when four men crashed a party in her mobile home on Burnside Road, held guests at gunpoint, shot one man and injured others.
The intruders entered the home about 1:34 a.m., bound guests with masking tape, stole cash and jewelry and fled, according to the Dare County Sheriff's Department.
Kill Devil Hills police later apprehended four Norfolk men driving toward Virginia in a car that matched witnesses' descriptions.
Lenoris Gregory Fleming, 18; Ralph Lamont Fleming, 21; Norman Lee Robinson Jr., 37; and Scott Terrell Perkins, 20; all of Norfolk, were arrested and charged with first-degree burglary.
Bond was set at $100,000 each, and the suspects were held at the Dare County Detention Center, said Chief Deputy Sheriff Rodney Midgett.
Police said Spruill was not injured. But one guest, Dion Daniels of Manteo, was shot by at least one of the men who was armed with a semi-automatic handgun and a pistol-grip 12-gauge shotgun, said Dare County Sheriff Bert Austin.
Austin said the intruders fired the shotgun at Daniels, followed him down a hallway and shot at him several times through a bathroom door.
Daniels was listed in stable condition Tuesday afternoon at Norfolk General Hospital. He had gunshot wounds in his left arm and the right area of his chest, said hospital spokeswoman Angela Jernigan.
Others injured were Larry Spencer and Andrew Banks, also of Manteo. ``They were beaten with the shotgun butt and the semi-automatic,'' Austin said. Spruill, Daniels, Banks and Spencer could not be reached for comment.
Midgett said no illegal drugs were found at the party or in the suspects' car.
Austin said the intruders ``came in with intent of robbing the place. They brought the masking tape in with them.''
A neighbor said one of Spruill's guests told him, ``They were all in there chilling and playing cards and listening to music. The storm door was closed but the other door wasn't and the guys came in - one guy had a sawed-off shotgun and the other guy had a 9 mm.
``When they came in they closed the door behind them and turned the music up loud. They told 'em, `Everybody hit the floor or we'll blow your heads off.' They took the jewelry, took the money, it was crazy.
``The guys heard sirens. Somebody called the police. I don't know who it was. They took off.''
From behind the police lines Tuesday, streaks of what neighbors said was Daniels' dried blood were visible on a glass window and nearby portions of siding on the rear exterior of Spruill's home. Several feet away, a bullet-riddled patch of siding left another reminder of the attack.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERIES by CNB