THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080375
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
A federal task force targeting violence in Portsmouth can chalk up the case of Fred Blount III to the creative use of federal law.
Blount on Wednesday was sentenced to 35 years in prison without parole for interrupting interstate commerce: He robbed and temporarily shut down a Portsmouth Pizza Hut that uses cheese, spices and dough shipped across state lines.
In August, Blount escaped punishment in Portsmouth Circuit Court for the 1994 robbery when the Portsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney's office missed the five-month deadline for bringing a case to court. The original charges were attempted capital murder, abduction, robbery and use of a firearm.
One month after he was released from Portsmouth City Jail last summer, he was rearrested by the federal Violent Crimes Task Force, created in August to reduce violence in Portsmouth by removing hard-core criminals from the streets.
In November, Blount was convicted, marking the first successful case for the task force, made up of Portsmouth police and federal agents.
Wednesday, Blount was sentenced to 10 years for carrying a semiautomatic pistol during the robbery of the Pizza Hut on Airline Boulevard on March 24, 1994. He was sentenced to 20 years for aiding and abetting two accomplices who carried a sawed-off shotgun and a pistol.
The firearms were used in the robbery that ``obstructed, delayed and affected commerce,'' a federal crime.
Blount also received two concurrent five-year sentences for conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats and violence.
Two co-defendants in the original case - 16-year-old Theola A. Saunders and 45-year-old Charles P. Bond - kidnapped Leslie Dawn Thomas and her brother Wayne and used their car to flee to North Carolina. Saunders shot and killed Wayne Thomas when he struggled to escape at a convenience store outside Edenton. Leslie Thomas escaped unharmed.
Saunders was sentenced to life plus 92 years in prison, and Bond was sentenced to death. Another gunman involved in the robbery, 20-year-old Anthony Hathaway, was tried and convicted in Portsmouth. He was sentenced to 29 years in prison.
In a last-minute motion Wednesday, Blount's attorney, John T. Callahan III, asked U.S. District Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. to grant a special order so Blount could be taken to a Portsmouth church to be baptized.
Evangelist Jimmie Z. Gribble, of the Portsmouth Church of Christ, testified that full immersion is the only true biblical teaching and that there were no facilities that would accommodate Blount in the Portsmouth jail.
Clarke ruled that Blount could be baptized by a chaplain in federal prison when he arrives in a few weeks.
Blount, 23, will remain in prison until he is 58.
KEYWORDS: ASSAULT ROBBERY KIDNAPPING TRIAL
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