THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503160385
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINDSOR, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Charles P. Bond was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder, armed robbery and two counts of kidnapping after a jury decided he was responsible for the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old Portsmouth man even though he was sitting in a hospital room a mile away when the crime occurred.
Bond, who showed no emotion as the verdicts were read in Bertie County Superior Court, could face the death penalty for his role in the March 25, 1994, murder of Wayne L. Thomas.
In a trial that lasted more than two weeks, prosecutors argued that Bond, 45, had given explicit orders to the alleged trigger man, 16-year-old Theola Saunders, to shoot Thomas and his sister if they tried to resist or escape.
Bond and Saunders allegedly abducted Wayne and Leslie Dawn Thomas, 21, from their Portsmouth home after a foiled robbery attempt at a Portsmouth Pizza Hut.
``The law is, if he advised it, encouraged it, if he instigated it, then it doesn't matter whether he was there or not,'' Phyllis T. Cherry, one of two prosecutors in the case, told the jury in closing arguments Tuesday. ``There would have been no murder without Mr. Bond.''
Leslie Thomas, who was four months pregnant at the time of the murder, recounted in chilling detail last week how their abductors, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a pistol, forced them to join in several robbery attempts and one armed robbery.
The overnight crime spree took Thomas and his sister to Suffolk, Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk and Elizabeth City. It ended in Windsor, N.C., where Thomas was killed.
As the jury of seven men and five women stood one by one to affirm their guilty verdicts, Leslie Thomas sobbed quietly in the arms of her mother, Pat Hooker, who also wept.
A few minutes into their hourlong deliberation, jurors requested a Bible. Judge Cy A. Grant Sr. refused, after prosecutors objected. It was not clear why they wanted a Bible.
The jury also asked for further explanation of the first-degree murder charge before reaching their verdict. In North Carolina, first-degree murder can result in the death penalty.
After the verdict, Leslie Thomas, trembling and weeping, stood outside the courtroom with her son, named for her murdered brother. She said she regretted that Wayne could not see the nephew he helped save.
Bond's sentencing will begin Friday after the judge determines whether the jurors can hear that Saunders, the alleged trigger man, cannot receive the death penalty because he was 16 at the time.
The judge also will determine whether prosecutors can tell jurors that Bond was an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Prosecutors did not elaborate on Bond's role as an informant.
Leaving the courtroom after the verdicts, Bond was asked if he thought justice prevailed. He replied, ``It will.''
Testimony revealed that two hours before the shooting, Bond, who was suffering from a gunshot wound to his foot, told his alleged accomplice that he needed to go to the county hospital in Windsor for help. He had shot himself in the foot while trying to abandon a car he and Saunders had allegedly stolen hours earlier in Portsmouth.
Bond, of Edenton, N.C., told the teenager to pick him up from the hospital in about two hours and gave him instructions to kill the Thomases if they tried to escape while he was gone, testimony showed.
After dropping off Bond, Wayne Thomas hatched a plan to escape. Asking if they could return to the restroom at a nearby convenience store, Thomas grabbed Saunders by the wrists, yelling to Leslie to run inside the store for help. Thomas and his teenage captor struggled. He was shot three times as he tried to run to the back of the store. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BETH BERGMAN/Staff
Charles P. Bond, 45, follows the proceedings in Bertie County
Superior Court.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING TRIAL VERDICT by CNB