THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407310092
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 137 lines
Thomas Lee Bonney of Chesapeake, who was facing a possible death sentence for shooting his daughter 27 times, has escaped from a North Carolina prison.
But the route he and another prisoner apparently used Friday may have led to their deaths.
Authorities believe Bonney, 51, and James Stromer, 48, hid in a detachable trash compactor that was later trucked away from Central Prison. Usually, before the container is hauled off, everything inside is hydraulically rammed.
``There's no way anyone could survive the compacting, unless the compactor was empty,'' William Vaughan, a correctional officer at Central, told the Associated Press.
By nightfall Saturday, police combing the Raleigh landfill where the trash was dumped had found no sign of either man.
Bonney, a former Chesapeake auto salvage dealer, originally was sentenced to death in 1988, a year after the nude body of Kathy Carol Bonney was found alongside the Dismal Swamp Canal. The 19-year-old had been shot 27 times.
The North Carolina Supreme Court later voided the death sentence on appeal because of evidence that Bonney suffered from a multiple personality disorder.
But the murder conviction was upheld.
A resentencing hearing was aborted in 1992 after a courtroom outburst by Bonney forced the judge to declare a mistrial. A psychiatrist said Bonney didn't understand what was happening to him and was incompetent to stand trial.
Bonney's escape ``does not surprise me because it's my opinion that Tom Bonney is an intelligent individual who could, in fact, plan such an escape,'' District Attorney H.P. Williams Jr. said.
``I didn't think (Bonney) was incompetent then and I think with this escape that he has demonstrated that he was not incompetent,'' Assistant District Attorney Frank Parrish said.
Kathy Bonney's nude body, riddled with 27 bullets, was found on Nov. 22, 1987, near the Dismal Swamp Canal along U.S. Route 17 in Camden County, just over the state line from Chesapeake. Her face was so badly disfigured that police relied on fingerprints to verify her identity.
For weeks, Thomas Bonney insisted he last saw his daughter drive off with a stranger. He even helped police prepared a composite of the suspect, but as police listened to him, they suspected they were listening to the suspect.
In December 1987, one of Bonney's other daughters told police she was afraid of her father - and that she thought she had seen bloodstains in his car.
Police found the stains and matched them to the victim's blood type. But before they could question Bonney, he fled, leaving his wife living in fear. She went into hiding. Social Services officials took custody of the other children.
On Jan. 31, 1988, Bonney was captured in Indianapolis. Three days later, after his return to North Carolina to stand trial, he told reporters he and his daughter struggled while arguing about her lover.
``We just had a disagreement,'' he said. ``The gun just went off.''
When asked why she was shot 27 times, he replied: ``I just cracked.''
Prison officials said the escape is the first in the history of the 12-year-old facility.
Stromer, a former East Carolina University lecturer, had been serving a life sentence for rape, kidnapping, burglary and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Stromer had a janitorial job at the prison hospital and did not report to work Friday morning. Bonney had a job in the prison's trash room, but the work did not allow him access to the compactor.
Authorities now believe the two men got into the compactor about 8:30 a.m. Friday. And they don't believe they could have gotten out.
There is only a four-inch space between the metal chute leading into the compactor. Once trash is in the compactor, a hydraulic cylinder rams the garbage.
The compactor, which is kept locked, is then taken to a landfill and dumped.
Prison officials are trying to determine how the two inmates were able to gain access to the compactor through two locked doors.
``Right now we're treating it as an escape,'' said Patty McQuillan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. ``But it is possible they were compacted in the compactor.''
During his trial in 1988, Bonney's defense team argued that he suffered from a multiple-personality disorder and that one of his bad personalities took over the night he killed his daughter.
Defense attorney John Morrison of Elizabeth City said Bonney had a ``diseased mind.''
The Camden County jury hearing the case was not convinced. On Nov. 25, 1988, after a seven-week trial, Bonney was convicted of first-degree murder. Five days later, the jury sentenced him to die.
On June 12, 1991, the North Carolina Supreme Court voided the death sentence but upheld the first-degree murder conviction.
In the appeal ruling, the court found that the defense had presented strong evidence of mitigating factors, including a multiple-personality disorder, and that the trial jury had been improperly instructed in its consideration of the death penalty.
The new sentencing hearing was ordered, but first Bonney underwent psychiatric examination.
He was deemed competent and the resentencing hearing began in Chowan Superior Court on Aug. 24, 1992. It was an unusual case in that the new 12-member jury - picked from a pool of 150 people - was hearing the same evidence, but only for purposes of fixing punishment. Guilt was no longer in question.
During that hearing, Susan Christine Bonney, then 19 and the second of Bonney's six children, testified against her father. She said she felt ``something was not right'' when he came home on the night of the murder without her sister.
``Dad never let my family date, and when Kathy didn't come home, I got worried and asked him about Kathy,'' Susan Bonney said. ``He laughed as hard as he could. He sat right there on the couch and laughed that Kathy was gone.''
The next day, however, the hearing stalled after a courtroom outburst by Bonney. His attorneys told the judge they could not control their client and that he was incapable of understanding the proceedings.
``We've talked to him about his actions and he can't seem to follow our instructions,'' Morrison said.
After a one-delay during which Bonney was given a new psychiatric evaluation, Judge Steven Michael declared a mistrial.
Dr. Bob Rollins, a Dix Hospital psychiatrist, testified Bonney was ``evasive, stubborn and angry.''
With that, Judge Michael said he ``had no choice'' but to halt the proceedings and dismiss the jury. He ordered Bonney into a new round of psychiatric treatment leaving the question of sentencing open until doctors determined that Bonney was fit to stand trial a third time.
Bonney, after the hearing, said, ``I'm still confused. I don't understand what's going on.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Thomas Lee Bonney of Chesapeake was convicted in 1988 of killing his
daughter. He escaped Friday from a North Carolina prison.
In a family photograph, Thomas Lee Bonney poses with his daughter,
Kathy Carol Bonney. In 1988, he was convicted of shooting her 27
times.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING ESCAPED PRISONER by CNB