THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996 TAG: 9605160392
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
The father of a Portsmouth drug-gang leader was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in prison for harassing a witness during his son's trial.
Robert Veal, the father of convicted kingpin Robert Winfield, was arrested during his son's trial in March after a witness said Veal threatened him during a lunch break.
He apologized to the witness, said Veal's attorney, Jon M. Babineau, after the hearing Wednesday. ``He said he never meant to intimidate the witness,'' he said.
Veal could have received up to a year in prison for the misdemeanor charge and up to $100,000 in fines.
The Winfield trial was surrounded by an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that FBI officials called the worst ever in Hampton Roads. Three witnesses said they were threatened, and at least one witness was temporarily jailed on contempt charges after he told a judge he was afraid to testify.
Five members of Winfield's River Edge Gang, which operated a violent open-air drug market in Portsmouth, were convicted on drug conspiracy charges. Their sentencing is scheduled for July 29.
Walter DuPree, the witness who said he was threatened, told federal authorities that Veal told him ``something else may happen to you'' after Veal found out that DuPree would testify against his son.
``He was talking about possible outcomes of the trial,'' Babineau said.
In addition to the nine-month sentence, he was fined $600. He was originally charged with threatening a witness, a felony.
KEYWORDS: SENTENCING HARASS WITNESS DRUG TRIAL by CNB