THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100360
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Calling it the toughest decision of his career, a judge on Tuesday ignored sentencing guidelines and imposed a life term on a 17-year-old convicted of beating a stranger to death with a cinder block.
``The guidelines are too low,'' Circuit Judge Luther C. Edmonds told defendant Neil V. Bates Jr. ``I cannot bring Mr. Jones back to life, but I can do all I can to prevent the taking of another life.''
Sentencing guidelines called for a maximum sentence of 67 years and nine months for the first-degree murder charge and the unrelated attempted robbery charge.
Bates will not be eligible for parole; the crime was committed Jan. 1, 1995, the day Virginia's no-parole policy went into effect. The victim, William A. Jones Jr., died the next day.
In February, a jury found Bates guilty of first-degree murder in Jones' death. It took jurors 45 minutes to reach a verdict at the end of a four-day trial. The evidence included a bloodstained, 62-pound cinder block used to strike Jones and a plaster cast of the three-inch indentation the victim's head left in the ground after the beating.
The judge sentenced Bates to two years in prison on an unrelated charge that occurred while he was on bond for the murder charge - the attempted robbery in August of a woman who was a witness against him. He knocked her to the ground and unsuccessfully wrestled her for her purse.
Bates had nothing to say when the judge offered him the chance to talk, except that he had located a witness who could have been helpful at his trial. He plans an appeal.
Still pending in juvenile court is a third charge alleging that Bates tried to persuade a woman, shortly before his murder trial, to lie for him to provide an alibi. That charge will go to juvenile court in May for a hearing on whether he should be tried as an adult.
Bates sat quietly through the Tuesday hearing, a single handcuff, its lock jammed, dangling from his right wrist. He showed no reaction when the judge sentenced him.
His mother, Sandra Bates, testified briefly before the sentencing.
``I like to say I tried the best I can,'' she said, breaking into tears. ``I know he's not guilty. He didn't kill no one.''
Minutes earlier, the victim's father testified from a wheelchair, which was rolled up to the witness stand. William Jones Sr., 74, told of the hardships of life without his only child, who lived with him.
``He was all I had, and he was all I could depend on,'' he told the judge. ``It's rough when I can't sleep nights. I have nightmares since that happened.''
On Tuesday, defense attorneys tried to persuade the judge to sentence Bates as a juvenile, meaning a maximum of commitment to a juvenile correctional center until age 21 - ``juvenile life'' in law-enforcement parlance.
His lawyer, Jennifer T. Stanton, argued that Bates' prior convictions as a juvenile were for nonviolent crimes - burglary and receiving stolen property.
But prosecutor Lisa McKeel countered that Bates had been through the programs available under the juvenile system and had not been rehabilitated.
``A juvenile disposition in this case is outrageous,'' she said. ``There is nothing in this report that shows that the court should show mercy to Neil Bates, because he has shown no mercy on anyone else. . . . Neil Bates is no child. Neil Bates is a cold-blooded killer.''
Two other youths also were charged in the killing. Nathaniel R. Lindsey, 20, known as ``Maniac,'' pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against his co-defendants. He is scheduled for sentencing June 7 and faces up to 40 years in prison.
Lorenzo McLean, known as ``Pee Wee,'' was 17 at the time of the crime. He is scheduled to appear in juvenile court April 17 to decide whether he will be tried as an adult for capital murder.
According to Lindsey's testimony, the crime began when Jones looked on as McLean urinated outside in the 1300 block of Johnstons Road. McLean then accused Jones of being gay and Jones swung at him. Bates joined the fray and hit Jones. Then, the two dragged Jones to the ground and beat him with the cinder block, dropping it on his face six or seven times. They also threw the victim's bicycle at him.
At one point, McLean slashed Jones' throat with a broken bottle, Lindsey said. The youths then left to clean their shoes. Later, they walked past the dying man on their way to buy marijuana, held a lighter to his face and watched him bleed. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
William A. Jones Jr., died Jan. 2, 1995, the day after he was beaten
with a cinder block.
KEYWORDS: JUVENILE CRIMINAL MURDER TRIAL SENTENCE by CNB