THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407290247
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG GOLDFARB, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
A Virginia Beach jury convicted a homeless man of trying to murder a police officer and recommended that he serve 45 years in prison for the April 1993 attack.
Alvin Hurley Daye, a former mental patient who claimed that ``police officers are out to kill him,'' was found guilty July 22 of using a pocketknife to slit the throat of police officer James E. ``Bo'' Nolan, who was responding to a disturbance on Shipps Lane near Virginia Beach Boulevard, just east of Oceana Boulevard.
It took a jury less than two hours to reach a verdict in the 2 1/2-day trial.
``I think it was a very just sentence,'' said Nolan, a 6-year Virginia Beach police officer, who plans to someday move to Tennessee and run for sheriff. ``The jury did a real fair job all the way around.''
Daye, 47, clashed with public defender S. Clark Daugherty from the start over his defense strategy.
Daye told Circuit Court Judge Frederick B. Lowe that he wanted to plead ``not guilty'' and that he attacked the officer in self-defense. Daugherty, however, told the court that the defense plea would be ``not guilty by reason of insanity.''
Prosecution and defense experts testified as to Daye's mental state at the time of the attack, each with differing opinions. Jury members heard testimony describing Daye as being, at one time, clinically diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, with a felony criminal record for resisting arrest and the unlawful wounding of a Richmond police officer.
Daye, who said he was from North Carolina and has been homeless since 1977, was admitted in 1986 as a mental patient at Central State Hospital in Petersburg, according to testimony.
``We did not contest that he was mentally ill,'' said Cathleen M. Pritchard, prosecuting attorney.
Whether or not Daye was ``insane'' at the time of the attack, and whether or not he knew right from wrong and was responsible for his actions, were key points of contention for the jury to consider, said Pritchard.
`` `Insanity' is a very narrow term,'' she said.
Jurors were struck, Pritchard said, by testimony indicating that Daye had ``fixed delusions'' that ``police officers are out to kill him,'' as his justification for slashing the officer.
Daye said that Nolan provoked him. But another homeless man, who was at the scene at the time of the attack, testified that Daye attacked Nolan without reason or warning. Daye had been waiting for a bus to take him and others to a homeless shelter for the night.
Nolan had been called to the scene in response to another man who had been banned from the bus but wanted entry. That man had left the scene by the time Nolan arrived.
In the end, jurors found that Daye knew what he was doing at the time of the attack and recommended to the judge that Daye be sentenced to 45 years in prison. Formal sentencing is set for Sept. 13.
Daugherty said he expects to file an appeal, due to ``the general failure on the part of the jury to wait and hear all of the evidence before rendering a decision.'' He said that one juror's mind was already made up before all the facts were presented and that there was ``improper conversation'' between jurors outside of the jury room.
Assaults on police officers are not uncommon, said Capt. W.W. Baker, of the Oceanfront's Second Precinct, adding that they are increasing. But it is unusual for an officer to be the victim of an attempted murder.
Only eight police officers in Virginia Beach have been killed in the line of duty, the first in 1923 and the most recent in 1991.
``We could very easily have gone to his (Nolan's) funeral, and that would have been a real disaster,'' said Baker.
Pritchard said that Daye may be eligible for parole in 30 years.
``I'd rather see him do all the time he got,'' said Nolan, who is married. ``Because if he gets out, I know he'll try again to kill a police officer.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Officer James E. ``Bo'' Nolan
He survived having his throat slit
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT ASSAULT
by CNB