THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608220367
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: 65 lines
One of two men wanted in the weekend abduction, robbery and murder of an airman stationed at Langley Air Force Base - a crime recorded in part by a bank security camera - has been arrested and has confessed his role, police said Wednesday.
Darryl R. Adkins, 18, of the first block of Sacramento Drive in Hampton, has told police that Airman 1st Class Eric Michael Nesbitt, 21, was randomly chosen for robbery.
``They just were waiting for a victim and they picked him,'' said Kimber Extine of the York County sheriff's office.
Adkins - who apparently was also shot during the crime - was charged with murder, robbery, abduction and using a gun while committing a felony. He was being held without bond in the York County jail.
His arrest came as an indirect result of calls from tipsters, Extine said. Investigators were tracking down one suspect based on information from Crime Line callers when they came across Adkins.
Extine identified the other suspect, who is still at large, as William Alfrederick Jones, 26, also of the Sacramento Drive address.
Hampton police also are investigating a possible link between Nesbitt's killers and another recent murder in the city.
Nesbitt, of Gilbertsville, N.Y., and a transportation specialist at Langley, left his part-time job at an auto parts store late Friday and was to have met his best friend at the base that night. But he never showed up.
On Saturday, a motorist found Nesbitt's body in a remote area west of Yorktown. He had been shot eight times in the arms, stomach and back with a small-caliber semiautomatic pistol.
Nesbitt's wallet and his purple, 1995 Nissan pickup were missing.
Investigators began checking the victim's bank accounts and found that, just before midnight Friday, Nesbitt had made a $60 withdrawal from an automatic teller machine at a Crestar Bank branch in the Coliseum Crossing shopping center.
Then, just after midnight and about 20 minutes after the first withdrawal, records showed that Nesbitt returned and made another withdrawal - $200.
Police checked security camera photographs made at the time of the withdrawals. In the second set of pictures, they found the image of Nesbitt sandwiched between two men in his pickup.
York County officials teamed with investigators from Hampton to track down the suspects. And with the release of the photographs, calls started coming in.
Tipsters identified Jones from the pictures and gave information on where he might be. ``They were looking for him when they came across Adkins'' about 10 a.m., Extine said. (Hampton police identified the suspect by a slightly different name, Atkins.)
Just before noon, Extine said investigators found the victim's pickup behind the King James Motel on Jefferson Avenue.
Extine said Adkins told investigators that he and Jones picked Nesbitt randomly as he left a 7-Eleven store on Armistead Avenue near Butler Road.
``Adkins made a statement admitting to his role in this thing,'' Extine said, adding that Adkins denied being the shooter.
He has some apparent evidence to back his claim: bullet wounds.
``Adkins has one bullet in him and a second bullet hole from where one bullet passed through,'' Extine said.
He said it appears that Adkins was injured unintentionally. MEMO: Anyone with information about the murder of the whereabouts of
William Jones is asked to call investigators at 890-3630.
KEYWORDS: SHOOTING MURDER ARREST ROBBERY ABDUCTION by CNB