THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 7, 1995 TAG: 9504070597
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: METRO BRIEFS
DATELINE: WINDSOR, N.C. LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
A 17-year-old youth who abducted a pregnant woman and her brother from Portsmouth last year and shot the brother to death was sentenced to life in prison Thursday.
Theola Saunders, of Edenton, was sentenced after offering a brief apology. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and first-degree kidnapping.
Saunders, who received a life sentence for the murder, also received 40 years each on the two kidnapping charges and 12 years for robbery.
He will be eligible for parole in about 40 years.
Saunders shot 25-year-old Wayne Thomas three times in the back on March 25, 1994, behind a Windsor convenience store after Thomas tried to help his pregnant sister, Leslie Dawn Thomas, escape.
Saunders and his accomplice, Charles P. Bond, abducted the Thomases from their Portsmouth home at gunpoint late the previous night after a foiled robbery attempt at a nearby Pizza Hut. The two were forced to participate in an eight-hour crime spree that led them through southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.
Bond, who was at the county hospital seeking treatment for an accidental gunshot wound of his foot, had told Saunders two hours before the shooting to kill the Thomases if they tried to escape.
Bond, 46, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death last month, even though he was not present when the shooting occurred. Prosecutors said Saunders was simply following Bond's orders.
KEYWORDS: SENTENCING MURDER TRIAL SHOOTING JUVENILE ABDUCTION
ROBBERY by CNB