THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020434
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY DALE HOPPER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BALTIMORE LENGTH: 61 lines
A New York man who was sitting in a cocaine-laden car when his cousin from North Carolina fatally shot a state trooper pleaded guilty to murder and drug conspiracy charges Thursday.
William S. Lynch, 21, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is expected to be sentenced next month to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole for the death of Edward A. Plank Jr. on Maryland's Eastern Shore as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
``As far as I'm concerned he's as guilty as the man that pulled the trigger,'' Plank's father, Edward Sr., said after the plea bargain was announced at U.S. District Court in Baltimore. ``But that's not how the law is written.''
Lynch was accompanying his cousin, Ivan Lovell of Manteo, N.C., as he drove back to North Carolina after a drug-buying trip to New York when Plank stopped them for speeding about 1 a.m. on Oct. 17 near Princess Anne.
Police said Plank, 28, became suspicious when the name Lovell signed on the traffic ticket was different from the name on his driver's license.
Plank asked Lovell to step out of the car, which was loaded with 13 pounds of cocaine.
As Lynch sat in the car, Lovell shot Plank in the face, climbed back in the car and sped off.
Lovell, who was wounded by Plank's partner, was caught later that day after allegedly breaking into a home a few miles north of Crisfield. Lynch was found the next day hiding in some bushes about two miles from where Plank was shot.
``It was a textbook traffic stop,'' police Superintendent Col. David B. Mitchell said Thursday. ``Plank was an experienced officer. Theonly way to prevent it is if he hadn't made the stop.''
Lovell said he shot Plank in the face because he was afraid he would be beaten. He was convicted of murder and sentenced in June to be executed by lethal injection.
``I have a sense of relief that justice has been served,'' Mitchell said. ``But you never forget.''
Prosecutors moved the Lynch case to federal court in an effort to win a murder conviction, which would not have been possible in state court.
Lynch faced a maximum of life in prison for each count, said Katharine Armentrout, chief of violent crimes and narcotics in the U.S. Attorney's office.
The 20-year sentence was accepted after looking at Lynch's actions during the murder and his criminal record, she said.
``Yes, he's guilty of murder,'' Armentrout said. ``But we have to balance the relative wrongs.''
The sentence is the equivalent of a state sentence of 40 to 60 years because it does not allow parole, she said.
Under state law, Lynch could not be charged with murder because he did not participate in the killing, said U.S. Attorney Lynne A. Battaglia. State law allows accomplices to be charged with murder in some cases, but not in drug conspiracy, she said.
``I thought it was a fair sentence,'' said Lynch's lawyer, William B. Purpura. ``He could very well have received a life sentence.''
KEYWORDS: PLEA BARGAIN GUILTY PLEA SHOOTING MURDER DRUGS
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